Why not support Aros 68k instead of patching old binaries?

[kamelito]

The CybergraphX thread was closed so I could not answer there and decided to make a new one.

The issues with patching or not distributing abandoned binaries with or without permission of author pops up regularly here. I do not want to start a bashing thread about authors but we all know that many old projects are either completely abandoned (author not accessible anymore) or authors still active (on one of the NG platforms) and reluctant to support 68k anymore.

My conclusion and question is... we do not need the old binaries anymore because there is a replacement for it: Aros 68k together with Rom Replacements from Toni Wilen. It is opensource and sources are legally accessible and it is possible to change and improve them. The Aros project lacks developers so if people want to improve the situation why do they not help there.

In this case CybergraphX 3 is implemented in Aros, why not helping to improve it? The situation regarding the old sources will not change anymore so why not accepting it and start somewhere new. Additionally Aros 68k benefits from the Aros developments so it is very sophisiticated and gets new software. Forget the old stuff... where Aros needs improvements when running on old hardware is mainly improvements in speed. And on API level some are very good implemented, in others stuff is missing. But it offers future... What do people here think?

See AFA:
http://amidevcpp.amiga-world.de/afaupload.php
Kamelito

[kamelito]

The problem with AROS is that it's (unfortunately) not a practical replacement for 68K AmigaOS. Unless AROS can run at a "Usable" speed on a 68020 Amiga with 512KB ROM and 4 MB Fast RAM with a high degree of compatibility to 68K AmigaOS it never will be practical.

That's why I still code (and patch) for my classic 68K Amiga's from time to time. But I'm not sure if will release any more patches for AmigaOS or any third party stuff either. It's just not worth the hassle of defending your patches against people acting as "Self-appointed" lawyers of the copyright owners (who have long since abandoned the Amiga scene or just really don't care what happens).

Sorry folks, my A3000 scsi.device patch (now supporting RDBF_SYNC and some other improvements) and

My A2091/A590 scsi.device patch (14MHz scsi timings, obsolete xt.device removed and now supporting RDBF_SYNC) and

My 7/14MHz jumper select GURU ROM* patch may NEVER be released!

*The author has the patched ROM binary and could release it any time he wants.

If we get LLVM/CLANG working one day, maybe the generated code will be fast enough for that.

Kamelito