| |
Count Zero
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1825 |
VICE - call for maintainers
Hey there all you (ab)users!
One of your favourite emulators next to HOXS, CCS, Frodo and alike really could use some help.
VICE has an awesome page at https://sourceforge.net/projects/vice-emu/ limited only by SF possibilities.
Many people around here use VICE and heavily avoid using the supplied bug tracker, mailing list or even the repositories. So be it.
Blacky Stardust does some awesome magic to supply Makefiles and project files for an incredible amount of platforms - and he keeps them up-to-date even when the original maintainer abandoned the project a long time ago.
He also recently announced a more rapid release cycle so we can hopefully narrow down problems in the future without asking "please try with a recent build. v2.2 is unsupported for a long time now."
However, if you are an experienced user on a deserted platform,
SUCH AS MAC OS X (!!!)
please check recent mailing list posts at https://sourceforge.net/p/vice-emu/mailman/vice-emu-mail/ and SAVE YOUR OS! :)
If you are using VICE on ANY other "rare" supported platform check the same link and offer your support for testing please!
While we provide WinVICE nightlies there are options to offer support for more platforms of course but I have chosen to not cross-build them as I feel quick testing in a VM is way too short for "maintenance". One should at least be able to test the build on two or more versions of the targetted OS is my personal opinion. Be it _only_ Win XP and Win 7 :).
So, if you feel you can support us by maintaining a port, supply regular builds for "common" platforms or just provide more bug reports to the tracker - DO SO! Don't be the lazy ass I see in the mirror every morning! |
|
... 14 posts hidden. Click here to view all posts....
|
| |
null
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2006
Posts: 645 |
I've got an A4000/060 with OS3.1, so I could could possibly help test that branch. How exactly do I sign up for this? (: |
| |
chatGPZ
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11135 |
riq: seriously, no. the difference is marginal at best and a matter of taste. in fact, for those projects i have dealt with that use git, git has been nothing but a hazzle for me and i wish they wouldnt use it =P i also know a bunch of people who will not contribute to projects when they use git(hub), because of the massive sux (and i'd be one of them if not for cc65) :)
anyway, thats all pretty offtopic and doesnt matter. we use sourceforge and we use svn. end of story :o) |
| |
AlexC
Registered: Jan 2008
Posts: 293 |
Quote: I've got an A4000/060 with OS3.1, so I could could possibly help test that branch. How exactly do I sign up for this? (:
I seriously doubt Vice will run on such config. The last time I've tried Vice under OS.41 on Sam460 the performance made it to never do it again. In fact I had never even tried to run on on my A4000/CyberStorm PCC.
Wish I had a lot more time so I could help you guys with Win port. but for a number of reasons it is a no go for me at this point. But I wish you lack and I really keep my fingers crossed for keeping up with Windows port. |
| |
null
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2006
Posts: 645 |
I don't expect it to run well at all either, but the port exists and I'd like to try to run it for my own amusement.
As it stands it just locks up the machine. |
| |
MagerValp
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1058 |
Has any thought been given to separating VICE into an emulation core library and emulators shell apps? E.g. libvice with just the virtual machine and an abstract UI API, which WinVICE/MacVICE/SDLVICE/etc links to? It's frustrating to see you get held up by 15 platform ports every time a new release needs to be made, as it's always one or two ports that lost a maintainer since the last release. With semantic versioning and a good library API it should be possible for users to update to new core releases even if the native app maintainers fall behind, barring any breaking API changes.
I'm just an armchair developer here of course, and to me it seems like an easy solution, but I realize that it'd be a fair bit of work and maybe not the direction you want to go in. I don't see any way out of your situation with the current organization though.
As for MacVICE, as much as I depend on it I already maintain more open source projects than I have time for. |
| |
MagerValp
Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 1058 |
Oh, and even though I'm a GitHub fanboy myself, the project should obviously stay with svn on sf.net. Moving is a lot of work, it disrupts workflows, you risk alienating current developers, and the gain is minimal. If you want to work with git nothing's stopping you, it's easy enough to mirror svn repos and produce patches back from your git branch. |
| |
Mr. SID
Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 421 |
Quoting MagerValpHas any thought been given to separating VICE into an emulation core library and emulators shell apps? E.g. libvice with just the virtual machine and an abstract UI API, which WinVICE/MacVICE/SDLVICE/etc links to? It's frustrating to see you get held up by 15 platform ports every time a new release needs to be made, as it's always one or two ports that lost a maintainer since the last release. With semantic versioning and a good library API it should be possible for users to update to new core releases even if the native app maintainers fall behind, barring any breaking API changes.
Since I already forked VICE (just x64) once for iOS, I know how hard it would be get that working, given the state of the codebase. I had to modify it so I can restart the emulation within my application. VICE has a lot of globals that are only implicitly initialized, so normally you have to restart the whole process to get it back into the initial state again.
It's all solvable, but retro-fitting a flexible abstracted library into the current code seems like a gigantic task that nobody wants to do. It's a lot of old C cruft. |
| |
ChristopherJam
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1380 |
Quoting Mr. SID VICE has a lot of globals that are only implicitly initialized, so normally you have to restart the whole process to get it back into the initial state again.
It's all solvable, but retro-fitting a flexible abstracted library into the current code seems like a gigantic task that nobody wants to do. It's a lot of old C cruft.
Ouch :(
Yes I was having similar thoughts about abstraction. I did manage to build 2.4 under OS X a few years ago and will have another attempt, but TBH I'm a developer who happens to use a Mac, rather than a Mac Developer per se. I was going to have another run at my SID envelope patch, but this is sounding more urgent at the moment. |
| |
ChristopherJam
Registered: Aug 2004
Posts: 1380 |
Minor aside, I use git for my own projects and for some collaborations with another dev, but I've not used github for a very long time. Conflating the two's not as ridiculous as conflating java and javascript, but you can certainly like one and stay well away from the other. |
| |
cadaver
Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1153 |
Have you considered creating your own mini-crossplatform framework (e.g. window, native UI elements needed by VICE) which would admittedly be a lot of upfront effort, even when extracting from the existing per-platform code, but could reduce the future maintenance work?
Or the nuclear option: integrate something like Qt :) |
| Previous - 1 | 2 | 3 - Next |
