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- Hi Jeff,
-
- Yes, this mail list has never had too much traffic on it except in
- the very early days of its creation. Back then, for a brief time
- there was actually *too much* traffic, at least for some of our
- overseas subscribers. For whatever reason, it's been fairly quiet
- since.
-
- I try to answer questions that arise on this mailing list and I try
- to keep everyone apprised of what we're up to here, but currently
- nobody here has enough time to deliberately try to start up
- discussion.
-
- The idea of allowing native code to be embedded in applications is
- indeed something that we've considered. We even briefly tried to
- find some developers who were interested in working out an API/ABI
- for such a deal. This topic even came up in our discussions with
- Apple's MAE group earlier this week.
-
- >From our point of view it is a capability we can provide. However, I
- think most developers would prefer to see us get our new color code
- up to speed now instead of adding this extra feature. If you're a
- programmer and you have an idea for something you'd like to
- accelerate this way, let us know.
-
- Since most programs have a relatively small amount of time critical
- code, and since such code is usually pure computation (i.e. very
- little interaction with the user interface), such acceleration would
- make a lot of sense for compute intensive work.
-
- Here's what our priorities are:
-
- Get all versions of Executor to build simultaneously with
- demo versions available for all platforms. This will show
- people what we've accomplished of late. Current state:
- the builds are running nicely in-house, although we are in
- the process of shuffling the support files and rewriting some
- of the demo licenses.
-
- Get our File Browser into the Executor community. Current
- state: "Go" (our internal name for our file browser) seems
- to work fairly well on a Mac, but has incredibly mickey-mouse
- icons and still has occasional trouble under Executor.
-
- Fix bugs introduced by our new routines and finish the
- unfinished parts of 32-bit color Quickdraw. Current state:
- no known bugs in our new synthetic CPU, we're finding and
- fixing color bugs every day still.
-
- Work on investment and partnerships. Current state: NTK is
- bringing some more Asian friends to the table. We're also
- trying to convince Apple to invest.
-
- Work with Mac developers (this is where your suggestion would
- come in). Current state: we haven't approached developers
- recently -- we want Executor/DOS 1.99x to be a little more
- stable first.
-
- Get Executor to the point where you can drop in System 7.5
- and suddenly have an enormous degree of compatibility
- (including the Mac Finder, INITs, CDEVs, AppleTalk, etc.).
- Current state: awaiting funding; this is expensive.
-
- The above list is largely ordered by date, although there's obviously
- some overlap. As we complete each of the above steps, we believe the
- Executor community will increase substantially. Perhaps then this
- mailing list will see some more activity.
-
- --Cliff
- ctm@ardi.com
-
- Begin forwarded message:
-
- From: Jeff Tupper <sloth!csri.toronto.edu!mooncake>
- To: sloth!nacm.com!executor
- Subject: How to generate discussion
- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 12:20:24 -0500
- Sender: sloth!nacm.com!Executor-Owner
- Precedence: bulk
-
-
- Hi,
-
- A short time ago I subscried to this list, but now I want some
- discussion.
-
- Actually, I subscribed yesterday and my mailbox is not exactly
- overflowing.
- What sort of things are discussed here? One thing I was wondering if
- is
- there is any plans to allow for "native" code to be embedded into mac
- apps so that critical portions of a program may be emulated faster.
-
-
-