amiga-news.de - Fortnightly Q&A's with Fleecy Moss

13.Nov.2003
amigaworld.net (Webseite) Fortnightly Q&A's with Fleecy Moss - episode 23
The English online magazine AmigaWorld has published episode 23 of the regular questions and answers session with Fleecy Moss, CTO at AMIGA, Inc. (Update 2012-03-15, cg: as the original document is no longer available, the following content was moved into our database):

1) Amighista: Is Python to be included in the upcoming OS4.0 release? If yes, which version? Will it include a GUI binding (like wxPython, PyGTK or Python for QT)? Who's the person in charge for the porting?

Fleecy: Python is being considered as the cross platform scripting language for AmigaOS4. It is still too early to talk about the project as AmigaOS4.0 itself is the priority at the moment but progress is being made in determining how to create a version that will integrate well with and make use of all the new features of AmigaOS4. Important issues to consider include the GUI and how best to implement the concept of the "ARexx port".

2) Step: We are continuously seeing improvements on the OS4 front in shape of screenshots, progress reports, etc. but why dont we see this in regards of the DE/Anywhere?

Fleecy: As we have said on several occasions, the AmigaDE was always a technology set from which we were to develop product lines. The first product line we talked about was Amie, which was to be a Smartphone to Server operating environment. However, after 18 months of experience with Intent, it became apparent that it would not be able to span such a wide vision, being better suited to a content solution. This allowed us to restart AmigaOS development, with the aim of developing it over time into something approaching the original Amie concept, whilst implementing the Amiga Anywhere and AACE product lines from the AmigaDE technology set.

The current focus of AACE is content deployment, which means deploying one or more pieces of content in a closed or open mode onto software hosts - Windows, PocketPC, Smartphone, and then Linux and Symbian. We have been concentrating on card, download and on device deployments in standalone format. There have been no screenshots because all you see is the content itself running. Once we have this completed, we will finish the AACE player with the new interface, but again, this is just a content player. If you are looking for the Amie solution then you will be better off playing close attention to AmigaOS4, particular as the AG2 project starts to see technology becoming part of AmigaOS4 releases.

3) Troels: Have any work started in regard to porting DE to AOS4 and who is (or will be) doing the port?

Fleecy: The long announced plan has always been to have AmigaDE technology running on AmigaOS4.2, the first PPC outing for the AmigaDE. This plan has not changed. As is normal, the Tao-Group will do the host port, since the AmigaDE can only run on hosts provided by the Tao-Group. The CII will be exclusively done by them but they have asked that we help them on the PII.

Work on it will start when AmigaOS4.1 has shipped.

4) drebben: Why will the JIT not be used for OS components and how will the system know what is an OS compnent and what is not?

Fleecy: Accelerating only applications eases the JIT design and integration a lot and gives a much cleaner result since there is a clear separation between legacy applications (and their translated code) and the rest of the system. It also gives us the possibility to add certain kinds of code optimisations and otehr JIT options like translation buffer size s.o. on a per application basis.

Another reason are code segments where response time is more important than execution speed, e.g. interrupts.

Of course one could argue that the speed impact resulting from the remaining 68k library parts could result in a bad trade off against the benefits of a cleaner code base but then one should also remember that there will be virtually no time critical 68k code left in the system and therefore also virtually no loss of speed. If push comes to shove we can add a dedicated JIT translation service that takes care of system code but it simply isn't worth the effort.

Regarding the howto: That's a technical detail I don't want to discuss in the public, what can be said is that we can easily track which loaded code segments belong to which task and the JIT makes use of that functionality.

5) HMK: How old versions of AmigaOS will Amiga Inc. support with Boing Bags, security updates (if such), when OS4 gets released?

Fleecy: We obviously want to encourage the community to move towards AmigaOS4.0 with all of its inherent advantages. We also want to encourage them to move to new hardware but recognise that the investment in classic machines and the PPC accelerators has been considerable, which is why we will support them if we can through AmigaOS4.0 and perhaps further.

As far as AmigaOS3 is concerned we have to look at the business arguments for continuing to support it. We are of course interested in the views of the community in this respect. In short, we will end support for AmigaOS3 but it is a question of when.

6) IonMane: Why would you want to develop on a cross-platform environment (= CPE) to draw people specifically to your own platform? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having AmigaOS 4 in the first place?

Fleecy: I'm afraid I don't understand this question, or at least have read it to mean at least two contradictory things. Can you send me a clearer version privately (fleecy@amiga.com) and I'll answer you and have Amigaworld update this Q&A.

7) kvinkunx: Did you already enter into talks with the authors of OpenOffice? This freeware office package already runs on several platforms defined as 'main' and would be really handy for Amiga users, an official approach of Amiga Inc. may convince the authors to do an A1 port I think.

Fleecy: I don't want to provide answers relating to specific third party applications or products but rest assured that we are well aware of the essential applications needed by Amiga users if the Amiga platform is to be a compelling choice for digital users and activity is progressing. I would point out as I have done before that it all boils down to size of market and amount of resources, two things we are working hard to improve.

8) Asemoon: AmigaOS4 is the main reason for me to get an AmigaOne. However I would also like to give Linux a try but I do not want to have to deal with bootloader menus all the time I boot the hardware. Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a bootloader for the AmigaOne which automaticly boots AmigaOS4 and only brings up the bootloader menu after pressing a certain key?

Fleecy: Yes it would 8-)

The situation is more complex than that. The booloader is designed to boot OS4 and Linux (or any other OS that is able to live on RDB partitions); however no actual code for Linux is ready. What we are planning as a temporary measure is yet-another-env-variable with an indicator on which kernel to load by default. The whole issue is only valid if you install OS4 and Linux on the same HD. If you install on different HDs, no problem: you set a default boot method and can change it by interrupting the autoboot.

9) TheJackal: Are there plans for the new graphics library (or Vega) to have the ability to use 32bits per channel, (128bits per pixel). This would allow floats to be used instead of u8's (0..255)?

Fleecy: I don't want to say too much about Vega since we are often accused of talking about things rather than doing. We recognise however that most people will judge AmigaOS4 by what they see and if Vega is to be the mechanism by which what they see is created, then it is going to have to have some pretty impressive and far sighted technology within it.

10) Angrybrit: I'd like to ask about the Media player that's gonna be included in AmigaOS4. Is there gonna be an official one or are we gonna have to adopt a third party like Mplayer/VideoLan?

Fleecy: MooVid is planned for AmigaOS4.0.

(Copyright © 2003 Amigaworld.net. All rights reserved.
Originally available at http://amigaworld.net/modules/fleecymoss/index.php?cat_id=24
You may freely redistribute this article, providing that a URL is provided to the original source,
and the copyright notices remain intact) (cg) (Translation: dm)

[News message: 13. Nov. 2003, 23:35] [Comments: 0]
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