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Update README to reflect testing branch for the Aristo3 theme

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David Richardson
2026-08-10 20:17:30 -06:00
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# Cappuccino: Build Desktop-Class Web Applications
> **✨ Project Status: v1.5.0 Baseline & Upcoming v2.0.0 Toolchain**
>
> Cappuccino has been under continuous development since 2008 and is actively maintained. This v1.5.0 release establishes the new resolution-independent Aristo3 theme as the baseline. While Aristo2 remains included, using it requires explicitly setting the theme descriptor.
>
> Cappuccino has been under continuous development since 2008 and is actively maintained. The v1.5.0 release establishes a baseline as we move to the new resolution-independent Aristo3 theme and Go-based toolchain.
> For users seeking a complication-free alternative who wish to avoid the Aristo3 work entirely, the legacy-1.4.0 branch provides an unambiguous freeze point. Please note, however, that this legacy branch is not guaranteed to receive any future bug fixes or improvements.
> Active development is now focused on the upcoming v2.0.0 release, which will transition the full toolchain to Golang and the platform-native binaries it produces, leaving Node.js and npm behind.
> **🚨 Aristo3 Theme: Community Testing Required**
>
> Aristo3 represents a non-trivial refactoring of AppKit UI classes. While unit tests pass, it must be tested against real-world applications before being merged into `main`. Community members testing against their own applications will accelerate the process. We are not concerned with minor visual breakages or cosmetic regressions at this stage; **the primary concern is structural failures.**
>
> The fully merged state has been pushed to the `aristo3` branch on the canonical repo.
>
> **How to help:**
> 1. Check out the `aristo3` branch: `git fetch origin && git checkout aristo3`
> 2. Build the frameworks and run your existing applications against this branch.
> 3. Open your browser's developer console and watch for:
> - Uncaught `CPException`s or JavaScript errors.
> - Infinite layout loops (browser freezing/tab crashing).
> - Broken responder chains or keyboard event handling.
> - KVO/Binding failures or `valueForThemeAttribute:` resolving to `nil` unexpectedly.
> - View hierarchy corruption (subviews disappearing or failing to clip).
>
> Please leave a 👍 on the [Aristo3 Pull Request](https://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/pull/3038) if your apps run without structural failures. If you encounter exceptions or crashes, please leave a comment with the stack trace. **A solid response of thumbs up is required before `main` can be merged. Our intention is to leave no community member behind.**
## Why Use Cappuccino?
Cappuccino is for building **applications** in the browser — especially complex, data-rich, line-of-business tools where productivity and user experience are paramount. Instead of direct manipulation of HTML, CSS, and the DOM, applications are built using Objective-J, a superset of JavaScript modeled on Objective-C. This gives you a lot of benefits:
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## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
**Q: What are the advantages over React or Vue?**
**Q: What are the advantages over React or Vue?**
**A:** React and Vue are excellent libraries for building web UIs. Cappuccino is a comprehensive **framework** for building entire **applications**. It provides a fully integrated stack—including a mature UI library, event handling, and data management—designed for large-scale development.
Beyond this, Cappuccino provides a more integrated and powerful data-binding layer inspired directly by Cocoa, which dramatically reduces boilerplate code for complex UIs as you can see in this [example code](https://github.com/daboe01/UIBuilder/tree/master/public/Frontend) that uses these features:
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* **Advanced Filtering with Predicates:** A table displaying thousands of items can be filtered simply by setting a predicate (a declarative filter rule, e.g., `lastName BEGINSWITH 'S'`) on its controller. The UI updates instantly. This eliminates tons of manual state management and filtering logic code.
* **Automatic Value Transformation:** Data can be easily formatted for display (e.g., dates, currency, booleans to "Yes/No") directly within the binding itself using value transformers, keeping model data pure and view logic minimal.
**Q: Can Cappuccino be used on Windows/Linux?**
**Q: Can Cappuccino be used on Windows/Linux?**
**A:** Yes. The development tools run on Node.js and are platform-independent. Applications can be developed on any OS and deployed on any web server.
**Q: Is Xcode required?**
**Q: Is Xcode required?**
**A:** No. Any code editor can be used. Xcode offers optional visual development tools for macOS users, but it is not a requirement.
**Q: Hasn't Apple moved on from Objective-C, making these APIs obsolete?**
**Q: Hasn't Apple moved on from Objective-C, making these APIs obsolete?**
**A:** While Swift is Apple's newer language, Objective-C and AppKit remain foundational, actively supported technologies used in many of Apple's flagship applications. Cappuccino leverages the stability and power of this time-tested API design, which is independent of Apple's future product roadmap.
**Q: How can custom HTML, CSS, or JavaScript libraries be integrated?**
**Q: How can custom HTML, CSS, or JavaScript libraries be integrated?**
**A:** Cappuccino abstracts away the DOM, but other web technologies can still be integrated. The `CPWebView` control allows arbitrary HTML/CSS/JS content to be embedded. Since Objective-J is a superset of JavaScript, JS libraries can be used and JS functions can be called directly from Objective-J code.
**Q: Does the LGPL license permit closed-source commercial applications?**
**Q: Does the LGPL license permit closed-source commercial applications?**
**A:** Yes. The LGPLv2 license allows proprietary, closed-source applications to be built and distributed using Cappuccino. Sharing of source code is only required for any modifications made **to the Cappuccino framework itself**. The application code remains proprietary.
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