mii_emu/docs/Compiling.md
Michel Pollet e231ecb762
Version 1.8, see changelog for details
Tons of changes, see changelog

Signed-off-by: Michel Pollet <buserror@gmail.com>
2024-03-13 08:45:11 +00:00

2.9 KiB

Top down view

Top down view Here how it's supposed to work!

The emulator was made to be portable on most things. It's plain C compiled with -Wextras, I run in regularly thru the static analyser, and I regulartly check it with valgrind. So it's pretty clean.

It evolved from the original mess, and I organized it into bits which would make porting it to other platform easier.

How to I compile it and run it?

  • You need a C compiler, make, and a few libraries:
    • libasound2-dev [ optional, for audio ]
    • libgl-dev
    • libglu-dev
    • libx11-dev
  • Many of them will probably be installed already if you regulargly compile stuff.
  • Then just type make and it should compile.
  • To run it, just type build-x86_64-linux-gnu/bin/mii_emu and it should start.

Development

  • This is the first project I made using vscode as my main IDE; I used Eclipse for many years as the indexer was pretty much unbeatable (still is).
  • To support vscode I needed some tooling to create the 'compile_commands.json' file, which is used by the C/C++ extension to provide intellisense. So to create that file, you use make lsp and it will create the file in the project directory.
  • Another thing vscode sucks at is Makefiles (despite the extension, building is painful and next to useless). So there is a target called make watch that you can run in a separate terminal to auto-build as soon as you save any files in vscode. That is when you realize for example that vscode re-save the file anytime you press control-S, regardless of wether the file has changed or not. So you end up with a lot of unnecessary builds. I'm sure there is a way to fix that, but I haven't found it yet.

Code Style

I have pretty consistent code style across my projects.

  • tabs=4. Just because.
  • 80 columns lines or so. I don't like to scroll horizontally and I like splitting my screen vertically. (also see, tabs=4!).
  • K&R style exclusively. None of that Allman/GNU horribleness.
  • GNU99 Dialect.
  • No Yoda, we are no longer in 1975. if (0 == foo) is just stupid.
  • I use !! to convert to 1 or zero from an expression. I call it the 'normalisation operator'. it is not commonly seen, apart from places like the Linux kernel.
  • I use minipt.h for protothreads. I like protothreads, and when you are aware of their limitations, they are a great tool. They are used for the video rendering, the no-slot-clock etc.

What needs doing?

  • I'm sure there are bugs. I haven't tested it on a lot of hardware, and apart from quite a few games and a few known productivity app, it had had very little extensive testing. So testing!
  • In the code there are a few bits which needs fixing
    • The floppy driver still has issues writing, most notably it fails to 'bit copy' stuff when using Copy II plus. It's a timing issue, but I haven't found it yet.