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i'm intrigued by this project. input a windows game, output a macosx executable. i have to admit that i'd love to have such a thing. but i'm skeptical. what's

• daeken 17y ago
  There's really little to keep it from turning into that. In fact, I don't see any way it couldn't be decades long, if the plan is real windows compatibility. However, I think that the points I detailed under the potential new Alky design would keep things considerably simpler (though I think it's unlikely anyone would pick up the design). As I said, I think the absolute key is a focus on maintainability. Everything comes from there.
• alnayyir 17y ago
  >what's to keep this from turning into a huge ungainly decades-long slog? Aggressive willingness to rebuild based on new knowledge. I don't really think it's going to be practical to try to make Alky encompass compatibility with all windows applications. I don't think it's practical to even attempt 80% of the apps out there. Wine already works for most of the basic windows applications. The issue is various, in particular performance sensitive, software (games, CAD) that are windows-only and a pain to get working in Wine (let alone performant). The wine approach is fine if you're satisfied with neglecting niche software + games, but a lot of what's holding people back is the fact that their computer is an entertainment box and cannot migrate said entertainment to OS X / Linux. That's the essential problem I want to solve. How much surface area, compatibility-wise, that'll force us to cover is at present unknown to me. I'll just have to see what happens.