Re: [Qemu-devel] Just a thought (high level API)

[Fabrice Bellard <fabrice@bellard.org>]

Nathaniel McCallum wrote:
> I know a lot of people are wanting to build qemu frontends and embedding
> the sdl window has been a frustration to several.  Well, I was just
> thinking today, what if we moved most of the emulation code behind a
> high level api, creating "libqemu" which would allow for lots of things
> including multiple frontends, embeded qemu, etc.  I brainstormed up a
> *very* raw idea yesterday between my classes while taking a very cursory
> glance at the code.  I had three goals:
>   1. Create a library (duh!)
>   2. Allow for multiple rendering options (SDL, GTK, QT, win32, etc)
>   3. Allow for storable virtual machine profiles which could be shared
> across all front ends (ie. a virtual machine profile could be used in
> QemuX, a Win32 frontend, a GTK frontend, etc...)
> 
> Attached below is a header containing a first crack at a libqemu api.

Such a high level API is a good idea and I plan to add one, but it is 
not my priority right now. It is not a necessary condition to have 
multiple GUIs or support for configuration files. Moreover, I don't want 
the GUI to be an external project for QEMU - the GUI is an integral part 
of a program, and I prefer to have one finished GUI than 5 half finished 
ones :-)

As a summary I prefer first to have a GUI and then to make some clean up 
to support it. The reverse approach often leads to "overdesign" i.e. 
bloated code.

Just another point as it was mentionned in the thread: I agree that some 
kind of dynamic modules are needed in QEMU - they will come someday. At 
the current point I am relunctant to add them to avoid fragmenting the 
project and to have to ensure binary compatibility: QEMU is not mature 
enough yet.

Fabrice.