GXemul: Release notes for GXemul 0.5.0

About GXemul
Changes
Personal "firsts"
Third-party files
Feedback

About GXemul

GXemul is a framework for full-system computer architecture emulation.

Changes

The changes between release 0.4.6.x and 0.5.0 are:

GXemul 0.5.0 is a complete rewrite of the emulator, from scratch. This has the following consequences:
- All emulation modes, processor implementations, device implementations, and other features were removed.
- Some processors, devices etc. have then been reimplemented, but not all.
A GTK+ GUI is now built-in.
There are now finally install and uninstall makefile targets, which should simplify installation.

To build GXemul, you may need the following:

The gtkmm libraries and header files (gtkmm-2.4 >= 2.12.7), for the GUI.
Doxygen, for building C++ class documentation.

Both gtkmm and Doxygen are optional, GXemul will build without them.

To build the emulator, run the configure script, and then run make. This should work on most Unix-like systems, with few or no modifications to the source code.

Personal "firsts"

For me, personally, the GXemul 0.5.0 development and release has been a "first" in several areas and technologies:

This is my first realistically-sized application in C++, released to the public. (Previous versions of GXemul were written in C.)
I'm using Doxygen to document the source code; previously source code documentation was not that rigorous.
I've switched from using CVS as the repository system for source code to SVN. The repository is now also available for anonymous read access by anyone.
This is my first released application which uses a GUI (written using GTKMM).
This is the first time I try to use a Model-view-controller approach from the start.
I've been writing integrated unit tests from the start.
This is my first application which supports Undo/Redo.
This is my first application with support for internationalized translations (I18N).

Regarding files in the src/include/thirdparty directory: these are from sources outside of GXemul (such as NetBSD). The license texts in most cases say that "All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software" must display acknowledgements. Even though I do not feel that I mention features or use of the header files (the "software") in any advertising materials, I am still very grateful for the fact that these people have made their files available for re-use, as Free software, so regardless of legal requirements, I guess thanking them like this is in order:

	debug_new.h, fast_mutex.h, and static_assert.h:
		Copyright (C) 2004-2005 by Wu Yongwei.
		(Also src/main/debug_new.cc.)

	exec_elf.h:
		This product includes software developed by the NetBSD
		Foundation, Inc. and its contributors.

	mips_cpuregs.h:
		From NetBSD.

See individual files for license details, if you plan to redistribute GXemul or reuse code.

Feedback

GXemul's homepage is http://gavare.se/gxemul/.

If you have questions about GXemul, please send mail to one of the mailing lists: gxemul-devel for (technical) discussions about the development of GXemul, or gxemul-users for general user questions.

You may also send feedback directly to me (anders@gavare.se), if you feel that that is more appropriate, or join the IRC channel #GXemul on FreeNode.

GXemul: Release notes for GXemul 0.5.0

About GXemul

Changes

Personal "firsts"

Third-party files

Feedback