Re: [B2-devel] Thoughts on SheepShaver and Basilisk II

[Frank T. <fra...@gm...>]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Alexander von Gluck
<kal...@un...>wrote:

> 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.
>

The instructions on the download page work quite well. They may have been
updated since you last checked (although at least five years ago).

cvs is not any more difficult to use than other revision control systems.
It lacks some of the features of svn and git, but those are not necessary
for a project with so few contributors and so few commits.

The project does not need contributors who cannot figure out how to use
cvs. It does not lack for features. It just needs some work on the memory
access stuff, which is the sort of thing that is so complicated that only
somebody who has already been a long-time contributor to the project could
do it.


>  * 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.
>

This is quite simple now. You check out the two source trees in the same
directory, change to the SheepShaver directory, run make links, and then
build for your platform. I do not need to make any changes in the Basilisk
II tree as mentioned in the instructions. A top-level configure script
might be in order, but my configuration needs are simple enough that I have
not been tempted to write one.

With respect to solving the supposed problem of having separate source
trees for the two products, what is your proposal? To eliminate
SheepShaver's dependency upon the Basilisk II components? It seems best to
me to continue to share the common code since, otherwise, changes would
probably not propagate correctly to both trees.


>  * UI
>    The UI of sheepshaver is dated and complex. Usage is difficult for new
> users .
>
> The SheepShaver project is not responsible for the design of Mac O.S., and
Apple is not maintaining the classic versions anymore. If you do not like
it, consider using a different operating system. (What do you think of
Haiku?)


> 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
>
>
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