www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/change/v3.4 - feedback

Mini vMac 3.4.1

Changes


What has changed in Mini vMac 3.4.1, compared to Mini vMac 3.3.3. This only lists changes that affect behavior, and so doesn't include cleanups of the source code.

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default compile:

New features

Changed behavior

Bug fixes

not in default compile:

New features

Changed behavior

Bug fixes

Build System

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New features in default compile

* None Yet.

Changed behavior in default compile

* Changed URL displayed in about screen to "http://www.gryphel.com/c/minivmac/".

* To make Mini vMac simpler and more maintainable, the interaction between platform dependent code and platform independent code has been changed a bit. Instead of the platform dependent code calling a routine to emulate one tick (sixtieth of a second) whenever appropriate, the main loop of the program is now in platform independent code, which periodically calls platform dependent code to check for events. A visible consequence of this is that the emulation will now stop running in certain circumstances when it used to continue running, such as during the open disk image dialog. The exact situations this happens varies for each platform.

* To minimize glitches in sound output when emulation starts, stops, or just isn't running fast enough, the sound call back functions in the various Macintosh versions and the SDL version will now try to play an appropriate transition in each of these circumstances.

* In the Cocoa port, when the platform dependent code checks for events, rather than using a time out value, it turns out there is a bit less overhead to check for events, sleep, and then check for events again. This allows matching the performance of the Carbon version, making the Cocoa version more ready for prime time. (Apple has declared Carbon very, very deprecated.)

The same fix actually also applies to Carbon. Mini vMac used to use a standard Carbon event loop with a complicated system of timer events only because a manual event loop didn't get quite as good performance. With this change, all ports can use the same platform independent event loop, as described above.

Bug fixes in default compile

* The Virtual-Key Codes of Microsoft Windows, that are independent of differences in keyboard hardware, turn out not to be independent of the choice of Keyboard Layout. Changing the Keyboard Layout to something other than "US" may scramble the Virtual-Key Codes, strangely enough. Mini vMac will now check the current Keyboard Layout, and attempt to unscramble the codes, so that the Keyboard Layout chosen in Macintosh operating system running within Mini vMac will work properly. There is a new build option to disable this fix, -ikb 0”, because this is fairly large amount of code and US only users don't need it. But also because I'm not sure I really understand this. Why has no one complained about this issue in the last decade?

* Mini vMac on Microsoft Windows will now recognize the Virtual-Key code of VK_OEM_102, and translate it to the Macintosh key code of 0x0A. This key is used for angle brackets in the German keyboard layout, for example.

* Mini vMac on Microsoft Windows passed an invalid Window Style to CreateWindowEx (when not in full screen mode). When compiled with certain development tools this could result in the window being the wrong size, and other odd behavior. Before finding and fixing this, I also made Mini vMac more robust in adjusting for window border sizes by using AdjustWindowRectEx and MapWindowPoints, rather than various results from GetSystemMetrics. (Thanks to the anonymous user who reported this issue.)

* The OS X version of Mini vMac was using the wrong syntax for the value of the LSRequiresCarbon key in the Info.plist file in the application bundle, as reported by Ryan Schmidt.

* The Linux, and other X, versions of Mini vMac would crash when exporting a file, if the “out” folder in the application directory didn't exist, and Mini vMac lacked permission to create it, due to not properly handling errors in the routine “FindOrMakeChild” in the source file “MYOSGLUE.c”, as reported by Éric of Montréal.

* The Linux, and other X, versions of Mini vMac can crash if the HOME environment variable is not set, due to missing error checking (which in turn was due to incorrectly disabling an alternate implementation), as reported by fzn.

* The Linux, and other X, versions of Mini vMac will now look for the ROM image in the application directory before looking in the “~/.gryphel/mnvm_rom”, instead of after, to match the behavior of the other ports. This makes it easier to have a ROM image for general use, and still be able try out another ROM image.

* The autoscroll feature (used in full screen mode when the emulated screen size is larger than the real screen) would not work when the emulation was stopped (using the “Stopped toggle” in the “S” command of the Control Mode).

* In the Cocoa port, Mini vMac would fail to mount a disk image located on a file system that doesn't support locking. It now checks the result from the flock call, and only prevents mounting if the file is already locked, and doesn't prevent mounting for other errors.

New features not in default compile

* The hack allowing the emulated Mac Plus (and other models without Color Quickdraw) to have a larger screen always allocated enough memory for a screen with up to 1048576 pixels. It now allocates more closely to just the memory needed, and can handle screens up to 2097152 pixels (the size of the unused area in the address space that is used by this hack). I believe the previous limitation was mostly consequence of how earlier versions handled memory access in the CPU emulator. The build system will now give an error when the requested screen size contains more than 2097152 pixels (before it would compile fine and just not work right).

* A new build system option “-sss” selects the output Sound Sample Size.

* A new build system option “-cbt” selects the initial value of Caret Blink Time (Rate of Insertion Point Blinking) in the Parameter RAM.

* A new build system option “-dct” selects the initial value of Double Click Time in the Parameter RAM.

* A new build system option “-mnb” selects the initial value of Menu Blinks in the Parameter RAM.

* A new build system option “-kyt” selects the initial value of Keyboard Repeat Threshold in the Parameter RAM.

* A new build system option “-kyr” selects the initial value of Keyboard Repeat Rate in the Parameter RAM.

* A new build system option “-svl” selects the initial value of the Sound Volume in the Parameter RAM.

Changed behavior not in default compile

* None Yet.

Bug fixes not in default compile

* Sound in the Macintosh II emulation is much improved. The build system now enables it by default.

* The Windows version wouldn't compile with magnification disabled (-mf 1) and screen depth (-depth) of thousands, millions, or 4 colors.

* The Classic Mac versions (“-t m68k” and “-t mppc”) didn't always request a large enough memory allocation in the SIZE resource, particulary for large screen sizes and color depths. The build system now tries to compute the memory requirements more exactly.

* The Pocket PC version wouldn't compile with "-im 1". Removing the call to GetShortPathName for Pocket PC allows it to compile, but then registration won't work if the path of the application contains spaces. Upon further investigation, it seems all that is needed is to put the application path in quotes when setting registry entries, so GetShortPathName isn't needed. So have made this change for both Pocket PC and the regular Windows version.

Build System

* The build system now supports Xcode 6.3.2 (with “-ev 6320”), and also Xcode 6.4 Beta (“-ev 6400”), Xcode 6.2 (“-ev 6200”), and Xcode 4.6.3 (“-ev 4630”). Though not tested, other versions of Xcode in between should also work, by constructing the “-ev” option in the same way.

* The build system now supports Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (with “-ev 12000”), and also Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 (“-ev 11000”), and Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 RC (“-ev 14000”).

* Added build system option “-api sd2” to use the Simple DirectMedia Layer 2.0 API (the older 1.2 API was previously supported), based upon a port by Manuel Alfayate, after this discussion.

* Files can now be dropped onto the build system application icon. This is equivalent to copying the contents of the file, and pasting it into the build system window after removing any existing text (such as by the ‘Select All’ and ‘Clear’ commands), and then choosing the ‘Go’ command. Multiple files can be dropped, and they will be all be processed. (Though if there is an error, that error is reported, and all remaining files are forgotten.) If the build system application was not yet running when icons are dropped on it, then the application automatically quits after processing all the files. Other ways of generating kAEOpenDocuments apple events, besides dropping files on the application icon, should also work, such as AppleScript.

* The Build System now supports drag and drop (when the drag and drop operating system software is present) onto its window, which has equivalent function to dropping a file on the application icon as described above.

* The Build System has a new “Import” command in the File menu, which has equivalent function to dropping a file on the application icon as described above.

* The Build System has a new “Export” command in the File menu, which saves the window’s contents to a new file, that the “Import” command can read. The new file has the creator set to the Build System, so double clicking on the file will work. The Build System application defines an icon for the files it saves.

* The Build System now has a progress indicator at the bottom of the window. It can display information about what is going on. Clicking on the progress indicator is equivalent to choosing the “Go” command from the File menu. The Build System can now potentially allow the user interface to remain functional while processing. But calls have to be added to the processing code to allow this, calls that report progress and can yield time to the user interface code.

* Renamed the Build System application to include branch information - "MnvM_b34". This makes it easier to deal with the Stable and Development branches at the same time.

* Prevent warning about unused code when using options "-var-fullscreen 0 -fullscreen 1 -mf 1".

* Added build system option “-t fbpc” for FreeBSD on PowerPC.

* Added build system option “-cpu”, to provide a starting point for compiling a combination of operating system and CPU that is not yet supported.

* The Build System now generates a compile time check in a configuration file when compiling with gcc for x86-64 or x86-32, to make sure the 64 bit configuration is not compiled with a 32 bit compiler, or vice versa. This can result (especially when used with "-no-asm"), in a binary that almost but doesn't quite work correctly. The check is for the wrong predefine being present, rather than checking that the correct predefine exists, to reduce the chance of incorrectly giving an error on an unusual compiler version.

* It does not make sense to combine the build options “-magnify 1” (to start with magnification on) and “-mf 1” (to disable magnification), and the Build System now prevents this.

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copyright (c) 2016 Paul C. Pratt - last update 8/28/2016