On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:22:29AM +0100, Jim Lesurf wrote: > In article <[email protected]>, Peter Howkins > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > http://www.marutan.net/rpcemuspoon/ > > > I would recommend using a release version of RPCEmu, as opposed to > > using the source code repository (even if you're are a Linux user > > compiling from source), as release versions have had more testing and > > the documentation updated to match them. > > I've just looked at the above page and would like to ask about a few > points. > > I am currently using rpcemu 0.8.2 (not spoon) on my new Xubuntu laptop and > it seems fine apart from two minor quirks. One was that getting ArtWorks > running seemed awkward for reasons I never understood even though it is now > OK.
I'm afriad that's not really enough info to go on to suggest anything. I can successfully use Artworks 1.7 (the latest I have) without any noticable issues. > The other is that rpcemu insists on using one cpu at the 100 percent > level even when all the apps are simply polling and doing nothing. Not > particularly good news for a laptop's batteries. :-) Just like RISC OS on a real RISC PC, RISC OS runs the CPU flat out, I believe my brother investigated and had success using a new sleeping module that used the 'Portable' SWI, and I'll bump the testing of this up the list of things to do, as that had the effect of dropping CPU to about 5% without the loss of mouseclicks. > My first point is that the above page seems to have binaries for Windows > and Mac, but not for Linux. Can it also have a binary version for Linux, > please? Or is that a problem for some reason? Unfortuanately there are just too many versions of Linux (CPU architecture (x86/x64/Sparc/ARM/Mips/etc), distribution (Ubuntu/redhat/debian/puppy/gentoo/etc x 100), releases) to create a universal binary that would run on all of them. However if people are willing to contibute compiled binaries for their favourite system (as Paul Stewart has done for Puppy Linux) we can host them. For example would you be willing to help by compiling up a Ubuntu binary for others to use? > Secondly, as a (fairly new) user rather than someone involved in > development I don't find the Release Notes are that easy to understand from > the POV of being able to tell, "will I gain something I want from upgrading > to the latest version?" (e.g. does a newer version give control over the > cpu loading *without* the problem of losing mousclicks or slugging actual > performance?)[1] So far every release has had user facing improvements, be it bug fixes or new features. Some of them may seem a little arcane perhaps, but holding back on very old versions isn't going to do you any favours, not least the ability of people to support you. Fixes that might not seem obvious are often improving the accuracy of the emulator, meaning more software (and OS versions for that matter) are likely to run. > Another point is that the page seemed to me to be saying that the spoon > editions should be regarded as 'alpha', but in your email you recommend > that as users we should take versions from the page. In my opinion, all versions of RPCEmu, whether Spoon, from riscos.info or even older are Alpha, if you've not been able to crash it, you've not been trying hard enough ;-). The Spoon pages explicitly state this as previously there has been a fair bit of user disapointment (and lost data) from people expecting a 100% finished product in the past. The level of stability is very dependant on the apps that people run, as such some can honestly state "It works very well for me", however I want to encourage people who have problems to come forward, as it would be an impossible task for us to test every bit of RISC OS software on our own. Peter -- Peter Howkins [email protected] _______________________________________________ Rpcemu mailing list [email protected] http://www.riscos.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/rpcemu
