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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.announce:1165 comp.os.386bsd.announce:129 comp.windows.x.i386unix:3855 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!concert!samba.oit.unc.edu!bounce-bounce From: bob@amscons.com (Bob Amstadt) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.windows.x.i386unix Subject: Wine project status Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.windows.x.i386unix Date: 29 Sep 1993 20:18:10 GMT Organization: Amstadt Consulting Group Lines: 116 Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Matt Welsh) Message-ID: <28cqi2$e5s@samba.oit.unc.edu> Reply-To: bob@amscons.com (Bob Amstadt) NNTP-Posting-Host: calypso.oit.unc.edu Keywords: WINE, MS-Windows emulator, WABI Originator: mdw@sunSITE Because the Wine project mailing list now has over 700 addresses in it, I thought it might be less stressful on the Net to send this out through news. Here is the latest status from the Wine project: The Wine project is an attempt to write something with similar functionality to the WABI that was developed by Sun. The basic goal is to be able to take a MS-Windows binary and run it under X-Windows. Currently Wine is supported by two operating systems: Linux and NetBSD. Other operating systems may be supported in the future. The finished product will essentialy consist of two parts: a) A program loader, which will load the Windows binary into the virtual memory of the user process, provide a means for adjusting the ldt of the processor so that the 16-bit segments that are typically used with Windows binaries will work correctly, and provide a means for calling the Windows binary in the first place, allowing the Windows binary to call back to the 32-bit mode program, and finally allow the 32-bit mode program to call back again to the Windows binary (i.e. Windows callbacks). In each case, the arguments being passed will have to be pulled from the appropriate stack and loaded on to the other stack (there will be a 16 bit and a 32 bit stack). Finally some application specfic DLL libraries will have to be loaded, and dynamic linking will have to be performed. b) The second part of the finished product is an emulation library, which takes calls to Windows functions, and somehow translates these into calls to X11 in one fashion or another, so that equivalent functionality is achieved. It should be pointed out that the Windows binary will be running directly - there will be no need for machine level emulation of the instructions. Sun has reported better performance with their version of WABI than is actually achieved under MS-Windows - theoretically the same result is possible under Wine. The project got started as a result of discussions on comp.os.linux in early June of 1993. A mail channel was set up for discussions, and this directory was created. At the moment, all of the files that are uploaded are in the private directory in a hidden directory. The reason for this is that the program is really only of use to developers right now. Once something is ready for public consumption, it will be uploaded to a publicly visible directory. The final product will almost certainly be under the GNU Public License (or GPL for short). *************************************************************** HOW CAN YOU HELP? If you are interested in contributing to this project, join the linux activists' WABI channel. If you have never joined a channel before, send mail to linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi. It will reply with a help message. New releases are approximately every Tuesday. All releases are announced to the WABI channel. Also, I will do my best to answer any question mailed to me. My address is "bob@amscons.com". If you don't have time to donate, how about money or equipment? This project has exploded into one of great general interest. We have attracted the attention of many individuals and several prominent organizations. Although I have turned down monetary contributions in the past, I will now accept them to pay contributors for their time. Equipment is also needed. Most notable disk space is a big problem. If you would like to make a contribution, please contact me by email. *************************************************************** WHO'S WHO Thanks to the following people for their generous contributions of time to this project. Martin Ayotte Andrew Bulhak John Brezak John Burton Miguel de Icaza Alexandre Julliard Scott A. Laird Peter MacDonald David Metcalfe Yngvi Sigurjonsson Linus Torvalds Eric Youngdale *************************************************************** Status Report - September 28, 1993 Thanks to the work of John Brezak, NetBSD is now capable of running Wine. NetBSD-current has John's patches for running Wine. It looks like the Linux kernel modifications are complete. Linux 0.99.13 now runs Wine "out of the box". Other versions of Unix may soon support Wine as well. Windows Solitaire is barely playable. Special thanks go to Alexandre Julliard, Eric Youngdale, David Metcalfe and Peter MacDonald for their work on this project. If you live near one of these people, buy them a beer. A large number of the drawing functions are complete. Work on control windows is now picking up steam. When all of the controls have been implemented, dialog boxes will be implemented. A new version of GDB capable of debugging Wine is in the works. This should help us locate the bugs that still elude us. Please forgive the infrequent status announcements, but work is slow. All contributors are donating their time without compensation. I would estimate that at the current rate that we are six months to a year from a first general release. -- Bob Amstadt bob@amscons.com -- Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu