From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2006-07-29T07:30:02+09:00
Subject: Re: For performance, write it in C

On Sat, Jul 29, 2006 at 05:37:24AM +0900, Keith Gaughan wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 02:42:30PM +0900, Chad Perrin wrote:
> > 
> > Design decisions that involve interfacing with interface software that
> > sucks is related to the software under discussion -- and not all of the
> > interface is entirely delegated to Windows, either.  No software can be
> > evaluated for its performance characteristics separate from its
> > environment except insofar as it runs without that environment.
> 
> Here's all I'm saying: the environment is important, but it's a variable
> that must be cancelled when talking about some piece of software that's
> running on top of it. You can only make judgements about the speed of
> something like Excel by comparing it to another spreadsheet with a
> similar set of features running on Windows. Otherwise, you're only
> making guesses as to where the sluggishness and bloat lie.

What's important is how two pieces of software run in the same
environment, not whether the environment is the reason a given
application is slow at some things.  That was my point: the GUI
performance of Excel is, indeed, relevant to a discussion of Excel
performance, despite the fact that significant chunks of Excel's GUI is
implemented by way of the environment.  Compare it with another
spreadsheet running in the same environment, and don't cancel some of
its slowness by blaming it on Windows.


> > 
> > Actually, no, it's not an emulator.
> 
> Yes, it is. It's a set of libraries and executables that emulate a
> Windows environment.

No, it's not.  Repeat after me:  "WINE Is Not an Emulator".  That's not
just an affectation.  It is a statement of fact about WINE.  That's why
they call it WINE.  An Windows emulator would be a "fake Windows"
running in Linux, like a VM: WINE is basically just an API that happens
to be as close to the Windows API (in all useful ways) as the WINE
developers can get it.  It does not pretend to be a Windows machine.  It
just provides compatibility for Windows programs on Linux.

Perhaps you aren't aware that WINE stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator,
or that they aren't lying whey they say that.


> 
> > It is to Linux compared with Unix as an actual emulator is
> > to Cygwin compared with Unix: one is a differing implementation and the
> > other is an emulator.
> 
> ?

(where ~ means "roughly equivalent to")

Differing implementations:
  Wine ~ Windows
  Linux ~ Unix

Emulators:
  Emulator != Original
  Cygwin != Linux

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
unix virus: If you're using a unixlike OS, please forward
this to 20 others and erase your system partition.