AmiZilla Update 9/12/05
Date 9-Dec-2005 9:42:31
Topic: Software News
| After many months of little activity, the AmiZilla project has had a kick of adrenaline- news on the GTK->MUI project, and some unexpected help!
AmiZilla Update 9/12/05
Right, it' s been awhile since we had an update- as we didn't have much time free, things were quiet there for awhile. But recently it's been quite exciting!
Firstly, oli has finished his GTK->MUI AROS Bounty- though not actually part of the AmiZilla project it will be of great help! To get the GUI working, there may be some extra GTK and GLib functions needed, and GDK will need porting. Some GDK Functions can be ported as is, but many will need porting to Cybergraphics/Picasso96 and possibly MUI. GDK accesses many X11 calls, so these will need to be converted or possibly the code copied from the X11 source.
GTK->MUI Screenshots
GTK->MUI Demo code and compiled exes (68k)
Also, OS4 people have ported the the GTK->MUI emulation layer from AROS to AmigaOS4:
GTK->MUI screenshot (OS4)
Max has done some initial work in getting the NSPR (low-level OS abstraction layer) working under AmigaOS4, which looks promising.
But the real exciting bit is Piyush Khengar (Captain Moo Moo on AW), who is a lecturer at King's College London, is getting five of his 3rd year Electronic Engineering students who have covered C/C++ in their 1st two years of study, to help on the AmiZilla project as the practical part of their coursework!
Now, great as this is, just remember that these students aren't that experienced in programming, or familiar with the Amiga OS. They may take awhile to get to grips with such a big project like this, so don't expect too much from them for a few months- they're meant to be spending 5-10 hours a week for 6 months on their projects.
AmiZilla has been split up into individual projects for them- as we have five students, we have added in creating a GTK->Reaction layer to AmigaOS4, and maybe porting AmiZilla to MorphOS and AROS, as well as the AmigaOS 3.1 target:
Project Number: 1
Port the GDK library from Linux to AmigaOS3.1. The GDK library is a medium level video abstraction layer for the GTK Library on Linux.
Project Number: 2
Help with the GTK->Reaction project (AmigaOS3.9 and AmigaOS4).
Project Number: 3
Create a GTK emulation layer for the Reaction GUI on AmigaOS3.9 and AmigaOS4.
Port the GDK emulation layer (Project #1) to Amiga OS3.9 and AmigaOS4.
Project Number: 4
Create a GTK and GLib emulation layer for the Reaction GUI on AmigaOS3.9 and AmigaOS4.
Project Number: 5
Finish off programming the XPCOM, and NSPR layer, and get it all working, and get AmiZilla compiling and running. Also put an Arexx port on AmiZilla.
Project Number: 6
Finish off programming the NSPR, and get it all working, and get AmiZilla compiling and running.
Get an X11 Server running on AmigaOS3.1, and compile the GTK, GLib and GDK sources (Linux ones) directly into libs, and get an AmiZilla Window up.
Port AmiZilla to AROS and MorphOS (using the MUI GUI).
For those interested, the full specs for these projects are here:
Full Project Specifications (LZX)
Full Project specifications (Text)
And a Resource List has been started here: Amizilla Resources
Note: some of these may yet be adjusted (especially as there are 6 projects and only 5 programmers- we had a couple of programmers drop out). And I realise that we can't use the C++ lib in Mozilla, and we won't use it in the GTK emulation layers either.
As we have five students, we would appreciate it if some developers could come and help the students! We only have about 3 developers active in AmiZilla, and none of us have much free time, so we're concerned we may not be able to help them enough- especially in the early stages, until they get more experience and can work more on their own. Note: they would only have to provide advice, and help the students if they get stuck- they don't have to actually spend time doing any coding if they don't want to! Note: at the moment the students will only be researching over the holidays, they won't actually be coding until they come back next year.
Also, as we're doing ports to AmigaOS4, MorphOS and AROS, it'd be good if devs from those platforms, could help the students with any OS specific problems they may face on those platforms. :)
And again, remember, there is the AmiZilla bounty, which goes to people who help in the project (when finished of course).
To join the AmiZilla list, either send an email to amizilla-subscribe@yahoogroups.com , or go to the AmiZilla Yahoo Groups website (but you need to create a Yahoo account, to do it this way). Also, donations to help encourage more developers, are most welcome too! :) - AmiZilla- DiscreetFX
- Ants
AmiZilla Team
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