5 ms·
Word emulation means to pretend something else, just because most of the time emulating hardware is required doesn't mean that the meaning of the word change.
by takeda 7y ago
Word emulation means to pretend something else, just because most of the time emulating hardware is required doesn't mean that the meaning of the word change.
Since you mentioned Amiga, there was an MacOS emulator called ShapeShifter[1], it didn't emulate CPU since at the time MacOS used the same CPU as Amiga, but it still referred itself as an emulator. Actually I remember that MacOS run even faster on Amiga + ShapeShifter than original Mac with similar hardware.
If you are not convinced, what about FreeBSD capability to emulate Linux[2] ABI allowing to run linux binaries as if they were native. This also doesn't emulate the CPU and other hardware. And I suppose it is even closer to what WINE does.
[1] https://shapeshifter.cebix.net/ https://shapeshifter.cebix.net/
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/linux-emulation/freebsd-emulation.html https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/linux-emulation/free...
- Piskvorrr 7y agoThat's a lost etymological battle, just like we can forever repeat that "hacker" does not equal "cybercriminal": even though the thesaurus says otherwise, one narrower definition of the word has taken over.
- takeda 7y agoI don't think this is comparable. World emulation exists outside of technology, and has specific meaning (pretending to be something else). Also in this case (unlike word "hacker") the word isn't used incorrectly. It's just more broad than most people think. It's only WINE that claims itself to not be emulator, despite in early FAQ calling itself Windows Emulator.