Convert most MESSAGE files to new syntax (${VARIABLE} gets replaced,
not @VARIABLE@, nor @@VARIABLE@@).
By default, substitutions are done for LOCALBASE, PKGNAME, PREFIX,
X11BASE, X11PREFIX; additional patterns can be added via MESSAGE_SUBST.
Clean up some packages while I'm there; add RCS tags to most MESSAGEs.
Remove some uninteresting MESSAGEs.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Sat Jan 6 23:39:58 EST 2001
Integrated updates to write-cache from Tom Vijlbrief.
Reorganized docs/ a little. Split the xml docs into 2 docbooks.
There is now a PUG (Plex86 User's Guide) and a
PIG (Plex86 Internals Guide). I removed the tarball out of
the CVS tree, and will upload pre-generated docs to the FTP
server periodically. Look for docs-yyyy_hhmm.tar.gz.
The tarball now contains both HTML and PS formats.
There's also some notes on what packages are needed to generate
and develop your own docs. (docs/xml/README) This release should
make it easier for people to help out.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Mon Jan 1 23:26:44 EST 2001
Added another docs chapter (17) to the user's manual, relating to
dynamic translation (DT) ideas for maintaining linear to translated
code address mappings and some other stuff. You can update from
CVS and just untar the docs/ tarball if you want.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Mon Jan 1 11:04:34 EST 2001
Integrated write-cache plugin from Tom Vijlbrief, and his related
mods to the hard drive code, to handle > 32-bit file IO.
Integrated small FreeBSD Makefile mods from Alexander Langer.
Regenerated configure.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Sat Dec 30 10:17:23 EST 2000
Integrated FreeBSD host port by Alexander Langer <alex@big.endian.de>
Note: this port does not work yet, but was uploaded so others
can work on it.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Thu Dec 28 13:51:50 EST 2000
Integrated LBA patches from Tom Vijlbrief, to rombios.c and harddrv.cc.
I modified the patches slightly, and have not tested them much.
Am uploading changes to let Tom test them as integrated.
Tom was able to access up to 2GB partitions with his changes.
Generated new BIOS. Changed all conf files to use new BIOS.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Thu Dec 28 10:32:57 EST 2000
Added dt-testbed dir. This is just a small separate testbed program
for developing thoughts about generated code for a quasi-dynamic
translation scheme. If you're interested in such developments,
look at the README file in that dir.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Tue Dec 26 16:34:49 EST 2000
Added framework for write-cache buffering (for "persistent disks").
Created new plugin, in directory user/plugins/write-cache/. It
does nothing currently, other than pass disk accesses to libc.
This is to make it easier for others to implement the actual logic,
without having to know much about plex86 internals. There are some
notes in the plugin C code.
I also created a new button (really lame) on the GUI. This triggers
a call to the plugin, so the user can select when to flush (commit)
the writes in the write-cache to disk and clear the cache.
Eventually, a nice menu system might do this with a "Are you sure?"
dialog or something similar.
It is possible that a large number of disk writes may exceed the
size of the write-cache (which should be configured by an option
to the plugin eventually). In that case, it would be good to present
the user with 2 options: 1) Quit altogether and ignore writes,
and 2) commit writes and continue. This should eventually be
GUI oriented, by stdin would be OK for now.
- "Kevin P. Lawton" <kevin@mandrakesoft.com>: Sun Dec 24 19:07:34 EST 2000
Integrated mods from Warwick Duncan for some remaining C++ -> C
comment conversions in plugin directories.
Added dynamic translation idea chapter to docs.
PC virtualization software program which will allow PC and workstation
users to run multiple operating systems concurrently on the same
machine.
Plex86 will run as much of the operating system and application
software natively as possible, the rest being emulated by the PC
virtualization monitor.
A highly visible and often requested use, would be to allow for
Windows software to be run inside of GNU/Linux or other UNIX like
operating system. This gives users a migration path towards UNIX,
allowing them to run legacy software until native ports or
alternatives are available. It also provides a transitionary step for
software vendors who plan to port their product to UNIX, but have not
yet done so. Users could buy the Windows version product and run it at
near native speeds on UNIX, using Plex86, until a UNIX native version
is ready.
