Haghani> Hi there. I recently got the Executor Linux 1.99 demo on
Haghani> the InfoMagic Slackware CDs, and happy to discover that
Haghani> there existed Macintosh emulators for both Linux and DOS.
Haghani> I have some questions about the emulator though...
Just out of curiosity, what version of Executor ships on those CD's?
For future reference, most of your questions are more appropriate for
"questions@ardi.com" than for this mailing list. However, the answers
to some of your questions may enlighten others, so I'll cc: my
response to the list.
Haghani> 1) Does it currently or will it support System 7 in the
Haghani> near future?
No, although we have long term plans to do so. We may "spoof" a
subset of System 7 to get some apps to run.
Haghani> 2) Will HyperCard 2.2 run on it?
HyperCard has a few problems, but more or less runs. To be honest,
we've done most of our testing with HyperCard 2.1. Our usual answer
to questions like this is "try it with the free demo version of
Executor and see if it runs adequately."
Haghani> 3) I ran the Linux demo on a 386DX/40 and it was very
Haghani> slow (as expected of course). Does the emulator run
Haghani> substantially better on higher CPUs? I'm considering
Haghani> buying a Pentium 90. With this chip and Executor and 16
Haghani> MB of RAM, which Macintosh system would this setup be
Haghani> comparable to?
We do most of our development on P90's running Linux. Speedometer
3.23 (a widely available Mac benchmarking app) claims that Executor's
raw CPU emulation on a Pentium/90 is roughly equivalent to a 50MHz
68040. We get such good performance by translating the 68k program to
x86 code "on the fly" and running the translated code. Graphics
performance suffers a little under Linux because we need to go through
the X server, but it's not too bad.
Haghani> 4) Which of the two versions, Executor/DOS or
Haghani> Executor/Linux is faster, more stable and more recent?
Version 1.99h is available for both DOS and Linux. 1.99h has a few
serious problems, especially the DOS version; you may want to wait for
1.99i, which will be out sometime in the next few days (hopefully
before Tuesday). The Linux version is more stable than the DOS
version because Linux provides a more robust environment than DOS.
Graphics under the DOS version are faster because we speak directly to
the SVGA board. We could write an svgalib version for Linux (I
believe DOOM uses this under Linux), but that's a fairly low priority.
Haghani> 5) Where can I get a copy of the Executor/DOS demo?
ftp.cs.unm.edu:/pub/ardi has our FAQ and the latest versions of all
Executors, including the DOS demos. As I mentioned earlier, you may
want to wait a few days for 1.99i to be released.
Haghani> Any additional information you can provide regarding the
Haghani> Executor demo and its features for both DOS and Linux
Haghani> would be much appreciated. Thanks
You should check out the FAQ on ftp.cs.unm.edu:/pub/ardi for more
information.
-Mat
From owner-executor Sat Feb 11 17:15:25 1995
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Date: Sat, 11 Feb 95 20:13:44 -0500
From: burton@het.brown.edu (Joshua W. Burton)
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To: mat@ardi.com
Subject: NeXTstep support?
Cc: executor@nacm.com
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Dear Mat,
I realize that you are fairly swamped with email (heavens, *I'm* swamped
with your email, and I don't even want 99% of it), but I wanted to bring
an obscure OS called NeXTstep (or perhaps NEXTSTEP) to your attention.
The installed base is small, but I am told that it permits very rapid
development of insanely great apps...like Executor, for example. A new
attempt to maintain support for your oldest customers, as Executor moves
forward toward 2.0, would be very reassuring for those of us who are
still around....
``Who was Tom Swift, |========================================================
anyway?'' he inquired | Joshua W Burton (401)435-6370 burton@het.brown.edu
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From: mat@ardi.com (Mat Hostetter)
To: burton@het.brown.edu (Joshua W. Burton)
Cc: executor@nacm.com
Subject: Re: NeXTstep support?
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>>>>> "Joshua" == Joshua W Burton <burton@het.brown.edu> writes:
Joshua> Dear Mat, I realize that you are fairly swamped with email
Joshua> (heavens, *I'm* swamped with your email, and I don't even
Joshua> want 99% of it), but I wanted to bring an obscure OS
Joshua> called NeXTstep (or perhaps NEXTSTEP) to your attention.
Joshua> The installed base is small, but I am told that it permits
Joshua> very rapid development of insanely great apps...like
Joshua> Executor, for example. A new attempt to maintain support
Joshua> for your oldest customers, as Executor moves forward
Joshua> toward 2.0, would be very reassuring for those of us who
Joshua> are still around....
I'm certainly a big NEXTSTEP fan. I was the NeXT Campus Consultant at
MIT, and I've personally owned two black NEXTSTEP boxes and run NSFIP
on my Dell. In college I wrote a large scanning/database/publishing
NEXTSTEP app that would have taken at least five times as long to
write on other platforms.
ARDI plans to continue supporting our NEXTSTEP customers. They have
been an invaluable source of bug reports and suggestions over the
years. Furthermore, the general ease of writing NEXTSTEP programs
combined with the portability of our code lets us support NEXTSTEP
(68k & x86) without much extra effort.
The only reason we haven't released a NEXTSTEP version recently is
because some internal changes in how we handle graphics have rendered
us temporarily unable to do so. Since we need to revamp NEXTSTEP
graphics support anyway, we've recently been trying to track down the
information we need to add Interceptor library support. Once we get
that information, we intend to get our NEXTSTEP port running again.
Once it's back in working order, we should be able to release each new
version of Executor for NEXTSTEP, Linux, and DOS simultaneously.
-Mat
From owner-executor Sun Feb 12 13:15:11 1995
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Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 16:16:20 GMT
From: Wayne Veilleux <wayne@pafio.smtl.hydro.qc.ca>
