I do not use the Launcher. I feel its development has stopped while still in trial version.

At the time, two separate developments around SheepShaver MacOSX were going on that were not fully mutually compatible. On the one hand there were the self-contained virtual machine packages and the built-in prefs editor, on the other hand there was the virtual machine Launcher. The current separate SheepShaver builds fully support the VM packages, while still being useable in the original single setup with hidden prefs file in the Home folder.
(One bug: SheepShaver will not create a file "prefs" in the virtual machine if not one is already present. At least an empty "prefs" file must be present to be able to start configuration.)

Development of the Launcher stopped with the beta-5 version (August 31 2009). A problem in that latest version of the Launcher is that it contains two executables, SheepShaver and SheepShaverLauncher, that will present themselves identically to the user, with the current Info.plist both as "SheepShaverLauncher" in the Dock and as "SheepShaver" in the menu bar. This creates a confusing user experience.

Sometime last year, I argued that the Launcher could better be a separate application without SheepShaver built-in. The Launcher could then be used to configure and launch the virtual machine packages that belong to SheepShaver. This would create a more coherent user experience and it would tie the two developments together.

Other ideas, thoughts?

Hi Ronald,

The actual Sheepshaver is a command line tool...

I was thinking in a more complex application. Something like Fusion or Parallels...
Only one application, with a nice GUI.

Is that too hard to make a builtin GUI to Sheepshaver itself?

Hi,

There already is a built0in preferences editor. When you select the SheepShaver menu, you can choose Preferences.
SheepShaver execution will halt while you edit preferences. A drawback of this solution is that you have to restart an already running SheepShaver for changes to come into effect. Another drawback is that you can't reach the menu when you run in full screen.
Currently, there are three preferences editors for SheepShaver:
-the old original SheepShaverGUI (cross platform)
-the stand-alone preferences editor (for OSX only)
-the built-in preferences editor (OSX only?)

What functionality do think should be reserved for a VMWare/Parallels type of shell around SheepShaver?

Best,
Cat_7

Thank's for the reply.

Well, I think that this can be very useful:

- An main window with all virtual machines (but I don't know if this is really useful, because VMWare/Parallels have a lot of guests OS and SheepShaver has only one)
- An interface that we can start and stop the VM, change the settings, add new disks, mount the CD-ROM, Floppies...

But, this is all cosmetic stuff... and I know that is better to have a good emulation platform then an nice GUI. And a lot of work can be done to improve the emulator code... (ie G4 support - an other sugestion - the PearPC G4 implementation is too hard to port to the SS?)

I know somethings about C coding... and I'm starting coding in OS X (Objective-C), so I will start to study the SS code, and I'll try to help to the project.

Different self-contained clickable SheepShaver virtual machine packages can be set up to be run by the SheepShaver application Each can have its own settings, its own prefs file, inside that virtual machine. My 25-10-2009 SheepShaver build for MacOSX supports these self-contained virtual machines.

The SheepShaver Launcher is a GUI for setting up different SheepShaver virtual machines and launching those virtual machines from one single interface. It shows a list of virtual machines that can be set up separately, existing virtual machines can be added, new virtual machines can be created and a selected virtual machines can be launched. The SheepShaver Launcher also exists already, though still in beta version.

When I will be back later this month, I will add directions about how to set up and use self-contained virtual machines and the SheepShaver Launcher to the SheepShaver for MacOSX setup manual.

My point in the first post in this thread is that the SheepShaver Launcher now has both the Launcher executable and the SheepShaver executable together in one single application, which causes confusion for the user.

I would prefer the Launcher and SheepShaver application to be separate applications. SheepShaver could then be installed in the Applications folder and you would never have to launch it directly. You could choose to work with your virtual machines directly or use the Launcher to manage, configure, create, and launch your virtual machines.

Last year I argued that this would be the way to proceed, Myrd (who developed the Launcher) agreed that it would be a good idea, but nothing happened after that. When mac1984 wrote that he built the Launcher: http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... 5718#35718 , I decided to revive the discussion: http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewto ... 5736#35736

Last year's discussion about the virtual machines and the Launcher is here: http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5754

Hi,

SheepShaver already emulates a G4 processor with its Altivec instructions added on top of the G3.
Currently, the main problems are around compatibility (opcodes etc.), memory management (emulating an MMU to be able to run above Mac OS 9.0.4) and support for USB/CD-ROM drives and other peripherals.
Perhaps the point about peripherals is the most pressing one. We would welcome efforts to improve the emulator!

Best,
Cat_7