On Jan 5, 2010, at 2:45 PM, Lindsay Morris wrote: > I could quibble - they have to do all that anyway, right, across the various > clients?
Speaking as someone who's had to write emulation and other software for foreign platforms, there's a lot more to it than may initially be apparent. For the software to basically function properly, it needs to be compiled on the target platform along with its code base - where the needed header files defining file system elements don't exist, necessitating a lot of intricate porting, conflict resolution, and dependency chasing. Then in emulation you have to supply the functionality which the foreign OS supplies - which is typically in its kernel, which quickly gets complex, where you're basically reinventing portions of that operating system. If you manage to get through all that, then over time you have to keep the whole up to currency with changes made to the real platform by its vendor. And imagine doing a lot of work to conform to a platform which then is soon banished to history (e.g., Vista). Ugh. I would not wish this on anyone. Richard Sims
