Fwd: Re: pcemu

["jerryc@innerpeace.org" <jerryc@innerpeace.org>]

This is a reply I got from David Given from the PCemu project. Any 
comments on his assessments of emulators would be appreciated.

Also, in doing some research, it became clear to me that even though 
we'll be using old desktop machines, what we're trying to do is very 
much like an embedded system in that what the computer will be doing 
will be very limited and known in advance. Of course, if anybody ever 
wanted to use the computer for something else later, they could just 
install different software.

Jerry:
>>Assuming we'll be using ELKS, would you recommend PCemu, DOSemu, or 
>>ELKSemu?

David Given:
> PCEmu is a software-only interpreter implementing an 8086 that will run
> on anything, if a bit slowly (although on modern machines still way
> faster than the real hardware).
> 
> DOSEmu uses processor tricks to implement a virtual PC at full speed. It
> will, however, only run on an Intel-based machine.
> 
> ELKSemu is a fairly unpleasant hack to allow you to run a single ELKS
> executable on an Intel-based machine as if it was a native executable.
> 
> PCEmu is probably the simplest to set up, but may be a little buggy;
> DOSEmu is the most complete, but is unfortunately rather complicated.
> ELKSemu is useful for developing applications without having to reboot
> ELKS all the time. I'd probably suggest using DOSEmu.



J:
>>One big advantage of using a "nix" based system is that it will help 
>>promote Linux. Promoting something with the name DOS in it has been a 
>>block. The load time won't matter much, and the extra security of not 
>>having all users have root access, as they do in DOS, will be important.

DG:
> *nods*
> 
> Do let me know how you get on; it's been a while since I've done
> anything with ELKS or pcemu, but if I can be of any help don't hesitate
> to ask.