7 ms·

>One problem that the WINE project (windows emulator for unix) Wine Is Not an Emulator.

• shubb 13y ago
  @Mike - Yes, that is true enough.
• fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  What shall we call WINE then? A "pretender"? I'm serious btw. I've never seen a good concise explanation of the way WINE works in comparison to say, an emulator. I have a fairly good idea myself, but I wouldn't want to have to give more than a very brief talk over it.
  • gizmo686 13y ago
    From the WINE website: "Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop." [1] [1]http://www.winehq.org/about/ http://www.winehq.org/about/
    • wfunction 13y ago
      > What shall we call WINE then? tl;dr: compatibility layer
  • plorkyeran 13y ago
    A reverse-engineered implementation of the Win32 API?
    • illuminate 13y ago
      Not pithy enough.
    • fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      Now we'll also have to explain what an API is, and then add some details about the Win32 API.
  • fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    I should have been more specific. How would you introduce WINE to freshmen, not CS students who might need to study WINE in detail, but well, here's a specific case, college freshmen who are expected to install WINE and then install and use software such as LTSpice, DipTrace, etc.? Or, more generally, how to explain it to neophytes who are expected to become moderately sophisticated computer users who might need to use WINE, but will probably never be software devs.
    • HardlyYakka 13y ago
      Something like: WINE is a translator that allows Windows programs (those that have an .exe extension) to talk to other Operating Systems. or perhaps: Many people need wine if you want them to work. A windows program on Linux is no exception.
      • justin66 13y ago
        > WINE is a translator that allows Windows programs (those that have an .exe extension) to talk to other Operating Systems. I'm sure the aforementioned freshmen would like a no-bullshit explanation for why "emulator" hurts the WINE people's feelings but "translator" does not. It's always been a mystery to me.
        • HardlyYakka 13y ago
          > no-bullshit explanation Hah! Not really possible, especially considering that the project used to be called windows emulator: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/windows-emulation/wine-faq/ I'd say they've changed the meaning so they can reinforce that it's not just another virtual machine ( and that it's faster than one). Which is true, it doesn't emulate another hardware architecture's calls, just the kernel and OS magic needed. In that regard, think of say a console game or arcade game emulator on a computer- that will have to emulate the whole architecture of said game system as well as the game. Contrast that to a game program for the the x86 architecture, but not for windows- you could run it natively on windows providing you change everything the game asks for that's part of the Gamesystem380 system into something windows understands, and vice versa.
  • asveikau 13y ago
    It's a set of libraries, and a loader for EXEs and DLLs. That's the simplest, most literal way I can think of to explain it.