*BSD News Article 28595


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From: bob@amscons.amscons.com (Bob Amstadt)
Subject: Wine status March 11, 1994
Keywords: Wine Windows NetBSD FreeBSD Linux
Message-ID: <1994Mar19.154703.30843@amscons.amscons.com>
Sender: bob@amscons.amscons.com (Bob Amstadt)
Expires: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 09:30:01 GMT
Organization: Amstadt Consulting Group  (408) 978-5743
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 1994 15:47:03 GMT
Lines: 146

Status Report - March 11, 1994

Sorry about the late posting, but for some reason when I posted to the
moderated Linux and BSD announce groups.  My postings never appeared.

Various bug fixes now allow several applications to begin to run.  Some
key features still remain unimplemented limiting the numbers and types
of applications able to run.  A shareware Taipei game is now playable
under Wine.  A security system application (sold by one of my clients)
now functions under Wine.

Work continues on Wine as a Library.  The first milestone of being able
succesfully compile and run a very basic Windows program was reached
last week.  This sub-project will be capable of running on any
Unix or Unix-clone with X including systems without Intel processors.

Wine is supported by Linux, NetBSD and FreeBSD.  Hopefully we
will attract the interest of some of the commercial Unix and Unix-clone
vendors.

We have received some new donations of money and equipment.  
We still could use more though.  Our current plans are to use 
monetary donations to buy programming time from student 
programmers.  I would estimate that 75% of Wine was written by
only three people!  We need help.

-Bob Amstadt
bob@amscons.com

***************************************************************
HOW CAN YOU HELP?

	If you are interested in contributing to this project,
join the wine-users mailing list.  You can join by sending the message:

subscribe wine-users YOUR REAL NAME

for example:

subscribe wine-users John Doe

to wine-request@amscons.com.  To send mail to everyone on the list,
send mail to wine-users@amscons.com.  New releases are approximately
every Tuesday.  All releases are announced to the mailing list.

Some brief information files are also available from the mail server.
Send the command "index wine" to receive a list of files.  The command "help"
can be used to receive useful instructions for the mail server.

Also, I will do my best to answer questions mailed to me.
However, we really need people who can dedicate 10 or more hours
per week.  This project requires people who can learn on there own.  
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.  Monetary contributions will be accepted to 
pay programming interns for their time.  Contributions may be sent to:

	Bob Amstadt
	5059 Wayland Ave.
	San Jose, CA  95118
	USA

***************************************************************
WHO'S WHO

	Thanks to the following people for their generous
contributions of time to this project.

	Martin Ayotte
	Erik Bos
	John Brezak
	Andrew Bulhak
	John Burton
	Peter Galbavy
	Jeffery Hsu
	Miguel de Icaza
	Alexandre Julliard
	Scott A. Laird
	Peter MacDonald
	David Metcalfe
	John Richardson
	Johannes Ruscheinski
	Yngvi Sigurjonsson
	Linus Torvalds
	Carl Williams
	Karl Guenter Wuensch
	Eric Youngdale

	Thanks to the following people and organizations for their
generous contributions of money and equipment:

	David L. Harper
	Bob Hepple
	Mark A. Horton
	Kevin P. Lawton
	Syntropy Institute
	James Woulfe

***************************************************************
HISTORY

	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 three operating systems: Linux, FreeBSD 
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.
-- 
Bob Amstadt       |  "So let the people say we're down right nasty
bob@amscons.com   |   I just say we're down right"
(408) 978-5743    |                                  --The B-52's