From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2006-07-29T08:55:58+09:00
Subject: Re: For performance, write it in C

On Sat, Jul 29, 2006 at 08:45:23AM +0900, Keith Gaughan wrote:
> 
> Seriously though, compatibility layers *are* emulators, what they're not
> is *full hardware* emulators. Unfortunately, when people think of
> emulators, they think of the likes of Vice, DOSBox, Stella, MAME, &c. So
> to avoid the misconception that they're full hardware emulators, projects
> like Wine avoid the label. But in the strict sense, a compatibility layer
> *is* an operating system emulator because they trick the software
> running on top of them into thinking they exist in a different
> environment than they really are: it emulates Windows, not the machine
> running it.

Something like WINE is "an emulator" in the sense that you can open a
dictionary of the English language and find justification for using the
word "emulator" in that manner, but not in the sense that it fits into a
class of software technically known as "an emulator": it is
differentiated from a "true" emulator not only by lack of hardware
emulation, but also by virtue of the fact that it is not an emulation
environment.  It's essentially just an API.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"It's just incredible that a trillion-synapse computer could actually
spend Saturday afternoon watching a football game." - Marvin Minsky