[B2-devel] Thoughts on SheepShaver and Basilisk II

[Alexander v. G. <kal...@un...>]

Good morning,

I've been a off and on user of SheepShaver and Basilisk II for *years* (and 
years, and years). It offers decent
emulation and is the best emulator out there for classic MacOS.

Over the last 5+ years... not a lot has changed. Here is my take on some of 
the current limitations of the project:

  * CVS
    Most projects left cvs for other version control software years ago. Much 
better source revision control software
    exist. If there aren't many developers out there who know how to use the 
revision tracking software for a project...
    no one will know how to (or want) to contribute.
  * Complexity
    I remember being an early user and struggling figuring out how to compile 
SheepShaver. Needing to check out
    two different source trees and have a script smash them together via 
symlinks was pretty hard to figure out.
  * UI
    The UI of sheepshaver is dated and complex. Usage is difficult for new 
users .


Given the limitations above, the following solutions exist and could greatly 
improve development with little cost:

  * CVS
    Migrate to a newer version control software.
    Most newer version control sofware allows imports of cvs to ensure commit 
history is not lost.
    I have a git repo on my desktop with the SheepShaver sources migrated to 
it.
  * Complexity
    Combine Basilisk II code into SheepShaver. While I see the reasoning 
previously for keeping them separate
    (development on Basilisk can be kept in one place), there really isn't a 
need anymore for the complex
    symlinking of files as long term it causes *way* more confusion. Once 
again, I have a local SheepShaver
    git repo with the Basilisk II code integrated.
  * UI
    Improving the UI would attract new users.

Bonus:
  * Work on porting the SheepShaver BeOS code to Haiku.


Thoughts? As the Macintosh classic stuff quickly disappears into history, 
having a modern stable emulator would
be a very good thing :)

  Thanks! (and thanks for all the work over the years on SheepShaver and 
Basilisk II!
    -- Alex