Status of IXEmul

[tygre]

Hi all!

I am happily tinkering with my Amiga/AmigaOS, trying to recompile/port thttpd to AmigaOS by myself. (I know that there are already some ports but what's the fun in that ).

Anyhow, I was able to recompile thttpd and some other programs using the IXEmul library but then ran into all sorts of problems and glitches and realised that IXEmul has not been maintained since 2010 and that the source code of v63+ does not seem to be available in the CVS, only the one for v48.2...

... so, what is the status of IXEmul? More generally, should we (as a community) continue developing/building on top of IXEmul or... what could be alternatives (if any)?

Take care!
Tygre

[phx]

Originally Posted by tygre

Anyhow, I was able to recompile thttpd and some other programs using the IXEmul library but then ran into all sorts of problems and glitches and realised that IXEmul has not been maintained since 2010 and that the source code of v63+ does not seem to be available in the CVS, only the one for v48.2...

I cannot recommend to use any ixemul-hacks after V48.

... so, what is the status of IXEmul? More generally, should we (as a community) continue developing/building on top of IXEmul or... what could be alternatives (if any)?

Ixemul always worked fine until V48. Although I would advise not to use it at all, if you have the time and knowledge to do so. Invest some time for a real Amiga port and get rid of all that emulation nonsense.

[tygre]

Hi PHX!

Thanks for your answer... Let me play the Devil's advocate: wouldn't it be super nice if we could recompile UNIX programs for AmigaOS "directly" (or at least minimum effort), so shouldn't we continue supporting a full-fledge, up-to-date IXEmul? Such support could give an additional "edge" to AmigaOS, to attract UNIX developers?

What do you think?
Tygre

PS. I am playing the Devil's advocate here: I have no strong feeling either way, just curious to hear yours and everyone's opinion about that

[thomas]

Originally Posted by tygre

wouldn't it be super nice if we could recompile UNIX programs for AmigaOS "directly" (or at least minimum effort), so shouldn't we continue supporting a full-fledge, up-to-date IXEmul? Such support could give an additional "edge" to AmigaOS, to attract UNIX developers?

It seems like the majority of people are thinking like this but IMHO it is a stupid approach. If we make AmigaOS act like Unix then we don't need AmigaOS, we could use Unix instead. If a Unix developer is not willing to learn AmigaOS API, then he is not worth to be attracted for AmigaOS. We get better quality programs from true AmigaOS developers than from other platform's "porters".

[tygre]

Hi Thomas!

Yes, I understand your point of view but not all developers may find the time and energy to learn the AmigaOS APIs up-front. Using IXEmul (or alternatives, if any?) could make the learning curve less steep while the attraction force greater.

We could say to outside developers: "hey, why don't you port your great program to AmigaOS, it is quite easy and, BTW, did you see these great APIs?" Didn't it actually work like that, early on, when developers ported games from Atari to Amiga (The poor quality of some of these "ports" led to the development of "true" Amiga versions.)

Anyhow, we have two "no to IXEmul" against no supporter... any supporter out there?

Cheers!
Tygre