MINE Manifesto

MINE Isn’t Not an Emulator

A “clean room” reimplementation of the classic Mac OS APIs pre-OS X, using emulation and native calls to seamlessly integrate legacy Mac software with the host OS.

Goals

• Using native widgets wherever practical
  • menus, windows and their native decorations, buttons, etc.
• Applications coexist with the host system, storing files on the host filesystem
• Improvements to the original Mac OS system where practical
  • no virtual memory
  • sandboxed processes
  • dynamic heap?
• Released under GPLv3 or later
• Backend support for:
  • X11
    • Wayland?
  • Quartz
  • Windows

Things we probably should do:

• Borrow existing code from projects such as:
  • ScummVM
  • GrayBox
  • MACE
  • Mac-on-Linux
    • Pretty much dead now in modern kernels, unfortunately
  • (Mini) vMac
  • Basilisk II
    • And its black sheep cousin
  • Executor
  • UAE?
  • v68k?
  • PearPC
  • qemu
• Add compatibility modes ala WINE that allow troublesome Mac applications to work, albeit with perhaps less integration than without the mode activated
• Support loading and saving of files in MacBinary format for cross-platform support (where practical)
  • And also native support where possible (probably only Mac OS X, but Linux support could turn around)
• Build the earliest version of Mac OS first, then build from there
• Have programs run “out-of-the-box”. No extra downloads beyond the MINE package.
• Except for code directly interfacing with the OS, it should be cross-platform
  • And even then, the OS-specific code should be abstracted out
• Have a built-in debugger
  • Probably CLI-only, at least internally
• Have an optional virtual desktop
  • Fullscreen mode is really a pain, especially when forced upon the user
• Integrate with Linux to get icons to display, similar to Wine
  • (Possible on Windows? Mac? CrossOver does this…)
• Have our own versions of normal Mac software
• Have someone with artistic talent draw us a minecart icon

Things we probably shouldn’t do:

• Emulate user-provided INITs or software that patches the OS directly
• Handle generic requests that talk directly to hardware
  • Like NuBus cards, etc. -- these will be handled on a case-by-case basis
• Disassemble Apple’s code
  • Disassembling Mac applications (that aren’t Apple’s) should be fine though
• Port over the system error dialog
• Port over Control Strip

Things we definitely won’t do:

• Require Apple-copyrighted material such as ROMs or system software
  • MINE ultimately will be an open, unencumbered way for owners of legacy Mac software to run their applications on modern hardware without the need for Apple products
• Use released Apple source code, either officially or unofficially
  • We know there is leaked source code out there. We refuse to look at it nor allow teammates to work on MINE that have looked at it.
  • Unless properly licensed
• Anything specific to Mac OS X

Things we should keep in mind:

• Keep PPC support in mind, even though we’re obviously targeting 68k first
  • Possibly have native PPC support on PPC?
• Supporting Color QuickDraw from the start is probably in our best interests
  • Minus QuickTime extensions...