Further PERQ Emulator progress (and a download!)

[Dave McGuire]

On Jul 3, 2008, at 9:56 AM, Jules Richardson wrote:
>> Includes all you need to get going.  You'll need a Windows machine  
>> with .NET Framework 2.0.  (Yes, I hear the jeering from the peanut  
>> gallery.  Sorry I didn't write this for your OS.  If you want to  
>> help with a Mono port when I get this thing more finished, let me  
>> know :))
>
> :-)
>
> Is it written in such a way that a port will be easy? (if it  
> *needs* .NET, maybe not! :-)

   That's the whole point of .NET.  Proprietary lock-in is the only  
reason Microsoft is in business today.  Sleazy, but very effective.

>   It's beyond my expertise, but my assumption about emulators was  
> always that the guts don't really change across (modern) platforms  
> - it's mainly the graphics layer that will be tightly coupled to  
> the OS.

   The PCB layout software that I use (called, oddly enough, "PCB")  
runs on UNIX platforms with X11.  Some time ago, DJ Delorie (of DJGPP  
fame, also has a project featured on the front cover of this month's  
Circuit Cellar Ink) did a huge amount of work to decouple the innards  
of PCB from the GUI.  He calls the result "HID" (Human Interface  
Device) and it has been used to create instances of PCB with a Motif  
GUI, a GTK+ GUI, and someone (Der Mouse, is he here?) is even working  
on a raw X11 GUI.

   That sort of abstraction is nontrivial to achieve, but it is  
possible.

> Good work, anyway!

   Seconded!

         -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL