OESF Portables Forum

Everything Else => Zaurus - Everything Development => Distros, Development, and Model Specific Forums => Archived Forums => User Request for Applications => Topic started by: mcamou on February 20, 2004, 03:13:48 pm

Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: mcamou on February 20, 2004, 03:13:48 pm: Is there any project out there that does, on the ARM platform, something similar to what WINE does on the x86 platform?

It should be possible (I think!) to do system-call and hardware emulation without having to do CPU emulation, so you could run PalmOS 5+ (ARM-based) or PocketPC (also ARM-based) apps on the Zaurus, much in the same way that, on x86 you can run many WinBugs apps under WINE without doing CPU emulation. This should be MUCH faster and probably more memory-efficient than QPOSE (in the case of PalmOS apps).
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: lardman on February 20, 2004, 06:57:30 pm: Yes it\'s doable, but no-one has done it I\'m afraid.
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: joebeaudoin on February 21, 2004, 12:20:07 am: Wouldn\'t it be easier to just create native programs for the Z instead of creating an emulator that hogs up system resources and memory?
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: VeeDubb on February 21, 2004, 10:19:28 pm: Yes and no. the problem is that the library of available PPc software far excedes what\'s available for the Z. The real issue is not for new programs, it for making all the great PPC apps that are allready out there, work with the Z.

Also, just like WINE, it wouldn\'t be an emulater. That would imply different CPU\'s. All youare doing is providing a set of libraries to translate OS calls. There\'s no great effect to resources.
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: doc on April 08, 2004, 11:39:44 pm: But I want to run sol.exe!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;] j/k
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: lardman on April 09, 2004, 08:36:52 am: You should be able to run Win95 in bochs or similar - in fact I\'ve seen a picture of it running. Win3.x will be even easier (and it might actually take less than a week to deal the cards ;-))

Si
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: attis on April 29, 2004, 03:52:38 pm: I heard dosbox works for dos stuff.
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: DrWowe on April 29, 2004, 06:23:41 pm: Yes, but it would be nice to run Windows CE software, that\'s actually been designed to run on a PDA sized screen with a touchpad, and still keep all the advantages of the Zaurus. Also API translation (Arm on Arm) is much faster than full CPU emulation. In theory, it might even possible to use the current Wine project as a starting point, because Windows CE API is a close cousin of the Win32 desktop API.
Title: Something similar to WINE?
Post by: DrWowe on April 29, 2004, 06:25:45 pm: BTW, an alternative approach would be to create something like VMWare, and them dump the rom from a PocketPC.