[comp.os.misc] Mixing/Merging OSes

lindsay@MATHOM.GANDALF.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay) (06/09/90)

In article <26636.266e6bc8@vaxb.acs.unt.edu> ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu writes:
>In article <880002@iftccu.ca.boeing.com>, 
>bressler@iftccu.ca.boeing.com (Rick Bressler) writes:
>> I remember reading a review a while ago about a set of libraries
>> available for the PC that when linked with MAC applications written in
>> C, would run on a PC with virtually the same look and feel of the
>> original application on the MAC.
>... SoftPC (to name one) lets you run MS-DOS apps on an
>unmodified Mac... with the right setup, you might be able to run A/UX, Mac
>applications, and MS-DOS applications... all at the same time... with memory
>protection under A/UX...

One of the more interesting combinations is MacMACH.  This is a
project to slide the Mach kernel between the hardware and the
software of a Mac.  (Without, I hasten to add, the Mac sources - just
starting with the raw binary.) (Requires an MMU-ish Mac, of course.)

At last report, it worked: the Mac software ran in one address space,
and you could even bring up MultiFinder.  Plus, Mach could also be
running the daemons that make it Unix-compatible, and there is a Mac
application that knows how to talk to those daemons. (You can't bring
up a direct window to the daemons because the Mac software thinks it
owns the whole screen.)

Also, an '86-based Unix can allow MSDOS to come up in an address
space, and treat a window as the MSDOS screen.  I know that Sun built
such a beast: did it work well?  Are there others like it?

Of course, it's probably better to "just" port the applications.
For instance, Lotus 1-2-3 now runs on SparcStations.
-- 
Don		D.C.Lindsay 	leaving CMU .. make me an offer!