Project - International Idol `WinBe'

ウィンビー国際的アイドル化計画


What's this?

This is a Project which allow us to execute Windows application on BeOS. The implementation is like WINE. So we should not call it emulator but environment for execution. It consists of win32_server and libld_dll.so.

Purpose

BeOS is a great OS. But its community is too small to develop a lot of trivial applications. If this project make it possible that we can use Windows applications on BeOS, we can use our precious time to develop a true native application. Yes, I mean the application that use the great MediaKit. Someone may say this project will reduce BeOS developer. Hey!! Is BeOS so poor OS? Do you want to develop the application that you can on Windows?

And your application will be able to load Windows' DLLs like add-ons via libld_dll.so. So you can use Windows' codecs or libraries.

Technical problems

I should implement BeOS version of KERNEL32.dll, USER32.dll, GDI32.dll, etc... There are thousands of API. So it's difficult to run complex applications like Office. But this problem will be resolved with time.

Another problem is serious. Recent Windows' applications don't have base relocation table. They are stripped at link stage. You know Windows' standard applications request map themselves to 0x00400000. But on BeOS, these area is allocated for kernel heap. So we can not use this address. I develop dynamic relocation technique. Now this technique lead to good result, but is not perfect.

Status

Now, some games work well. And a lot of DLLs, which don't need GUI, is available.
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