Stepstone
Encyclopedia
Stepstone, originally named Productivity Products International (PPI), was a software company founded in 1983 by Brad Cox
and Tom Love, best known for releasing the original version of the Objective-C
programming language.
PPI/Stepstone enjoyed modest success not only supplying semi-"object oriented" software, but also among those who wanted an ANSI C compiler on platforms that didn't otherwise support one -- the Objective-C
compiler spit out code to be fed to the native C compiler, which often was K&R. The ICpak 201 interface toolkit was submitted to the OSF as a candidate for their interface standard but was not expected to win over Motif.
In April 1995, NeXT
acquired the Objective-C trademark and rights from Stepstone. At the same time, Stepstone licensed back from NeXT the right to continue selling their Objective-C based products. The US software company Stepstone appears to have gone out of business in the early 2000s.
Brad Cox
Brad Cox is a computer scientist and Ph.D. of mathematical biology known mostly for his work in software engineering , software componentry, and the Objective-C programming language....
and Tom Love, best known for releasing the original version of the Objective-C
Objective-C
Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...
programming language.
PPI/Stepstone enjoyed modest success not only supplying semi-"object oriented" software, but also among those who wanted an ANSI C compiler on platforms that didn't otherwise support one -- the Objective-C
Objective-C
Objective-C is a reflective, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style messaging to the C programming language.Today, it is used primarily on Apple's Mac OS X and iOS: two environments derived from the OpenStep standard, though not compliant with it...
compiler spit out code to be fed to the native C compiler, which often was K&R. The ICpak 201 interface toolkit was submitted to the OSF as a candidate for their interface standard but was not expected to win over Motif.
In April 1995, NeXT
NeXT
Next, Inc. was an American computer company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that developed and manufactured a series of computer workstations intended for the higher education and business markets...
acquired the Objective-C trademark and rights from Stepstone. At the same time, Stepstone licensed back from NeXT the right to continue selling their Objective-C based products. The US software company Stepstone appears to have gone out of business in the early 2000s.