Re: [Atari800-users] Atari800-users Digest, Vol 111, Issue 1

[Chris C. <chr...@gm...>]

On Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 1:50 PM <
ata...@li...> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. this is interesting (Petr Stehl?k)
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> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:17:59 +0200
> From: Petr Stehl?k <pst...@so...>
> To: ata...@li...
> Subject: [Atari800-users] this is interesting
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> Check the github issue and if you're a developer and/or Atari800 port
> maintainer then feel free to comment there.
>
> https://github.com/atari800/atari800/issues/134
>
> Petr
>

I'm a software developer "from way back" -- by which I mean, in part, that
I'm *waaaaaay behind *on today's tools, e.g. github, whatever compiler(s)
you folks are using to build Atari800 from scratch, etc. -- but late last
fall I expressed interest in getting involved "if I got the Windows 10 PC
I'm expecting, for Christmas."  Well, I got the PC, but I haven't yet
gotten around to looking at the source code I somehow managed to download
last fall, let alone figuring out how to get anything "current" from github
(or anywhere else).

So I also don't know how to *comment *on github, hence I'll have to do it
*here.*

If I correctly understand the discussion at the link above, it seems that a
plug-in-based architecture is being proposed, though it's not entirely
clear to me.

In general I support this idea.  I have a medium-long personal list of
things I'd like to see supported in/by atari800, but which it strikes me as
inefficient or clumsy to include in the body of atari800 itself.  A
modular architecture, using plug-ins or the equivalent, seems to be the
right way to go.  This would also allow separation of *development *of
peripheral-device emulation from atari800 mainline development, so that
each could proceed at its own pace without unduly affecting, e.g. requiring
a rebuild, of any other.

The prerequisites for this would be to a) design the modular architecture,
b) define a standard API (and/or ABI) (or two -- perhaps one at SIO level
and another more abstract; certainly I can imagine it being useful for each
plug-in to supply its own configuration menu) for communication between
atari800 and a peripheral emulator, and c) extract the *currently *embedded
device emulations (disk drives, modem, printer) from atari800 and make them
plug-ins.  (The currently embedded devices could be set as *default *plug-ins,
to preserve existing configuration menus and hotkeys -- or could be left in
place in atari800 but with the ability for plugins to *override *them at
various levels (e.g. either in the Disk Management menu or in another,
auxiliary, menu)...)

I suppose there could be arguments in the other direction, in favor of
preserving the current "monolithic" architecture, so feel free to disagree
with me.

Also feel free to inform me of how to respond properly *on github.*  Thanks
in advance for that.


Chris