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

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

On 15.06.2012 09:45, Frank Trampe wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 8:43 AM, Alexander von Gluck 
> <kal...@un... [4]> 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.

This seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Why do we have so few commits 
and interest? why should we move away from
a 21-year old overly complex version control software that no one uses 
anymore?

> 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.

Open source development is an evolving ecosystem, a healthy project has 
users come and go improving parts they find
interesting.

Assuming someone wouldn't know how to write an MMU to perform physical to 
virtual address translation based on the
fact that they don't know how to use a 21 year old version control system 
which hasn't seen a major update in 6+ years
is a pretty strange assumption.

>>  * 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.

Right, however the tangled web of symlinks makes development on either 
project difficult. Who would want to
clean up a repo that several other projects depend on static file locations?

>
>> r>
>>
>> The SheepShaver project is not responsible for the design of Mac O.S., 
>> and Apple is not
> he classic versions anymore. If you do not like it, consider using a 
> different operating system. (What do you think
> of
> Haiku?)

The *SheepShaver* interface, not the MacOS classic UI.


Given the responses above, and the complete lack of activity on the mailing 
list over the years... it seems like there
really isn't any interest in keeping the project alive as an evolving open 
source application. (which may also explain
why there has been little interest over the years)

I'm trying to be helpful here and maybe help nudge things into a more active 
position. (I wouldn't be making these
emails if I wasn't interested in putting some work into the project)

  -- Alex