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Apple and SimSig

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Apple and SimSig 27/01/2010 at 19:06 #612
Lardybiker
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Apple have just announced (15mins ago at time of writing) the new iPad. 9.7 in screen, 0.5 in thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 10 hour battery life....I already want one!

If only it could run SimSig....I'd be interested in trying to port it if there was enough of a call to do so and Geoff allowed me to!

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Apple and SimSig 27/01/2010 at 19:06 #6244
Lardybiker
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771 posts
Apple have just announced (15mins ago at time of writing) the new iPad. 9.7 in screen, 0.5 in thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 10 hour battery life....I already want one!

If only it could run SimSig....I'd be interested in trying to port it if there was enough of a call to do so and Geoff allowed me to!

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Apple and SimSig 27/01/2010 at 19:47 #6245
Sacro
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The iPad uses an Arm processor so porting would certainly be an interesting challenge, might be easier to rewrite!
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Apple and SimSig 31/01/2010 at 11:18 #6353
Signaller@Amsterdam
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If you can make it work... Ill buy it.

The largest dissapointment to me is the iPad OS is iPhone OS and not a mini version of OSX. But who knows... I think the thing will be jailbroken the first month it's on the market, and I think they will do their best effords to get OSX running on the iPad. Which allows you to install Crossover and run SimSig on it.

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Apple and SimSig 31/01/2010 at 11:21 #6354
Sacro
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iPhone OS is a mini version of OSX.

You won't get normal OSX running on it because it's an ARM CPU not an x86, might get Linux though.

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Apple and SimSig 31/01/2010 at 16:34 #6359
UKTrainMan
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If It can get Linux on it then you can get that linuxstarter.zip file ("It's a wine registry file, basically"from the Downloads/Uploads and hey presto you should be able to run SimSig on it.
Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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Apple and SimSig 31/01/2010 at 18:07 #6364
Sacro
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Well no, you'd require a copy of Wine for an ARM CPU which hasn't been done yet.
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Apple and SimSig 02/02/2010 at 00:06 #6392
clive
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There's two separate issues here.

Firstly, I suspect there's never going to be a version of wine for the ARM. Wine works by converting all the Windows operating system functions into Linux ones, but the program itself runs directly on the processor. That requires the processor to be a Pentium-family chip. In order to run a Windows program on an ARM, you need a Pentium simulator program, which is a much more difficult thing to do. Programs are likely to run much slower.

However, that wouldn't prevent a SimSig port to an ARM machine. SimSig isn't written in assembler, it's written in Delphi. Therefore all that would be needed would be a Delphi compiler for the iPad (or any other machine). It might be necessary to alter some of the graphics code, but that's relatively little work. But until that compiler is available, there's no point in even looking into the possibility.

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Apple and SimSig 02/02/2010 at 12:50 #6400
Tallington
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I am sure this question has been asked many times in the last few weeks by 'other' programmers.

Putting 'arm' and 'delphi' into Google brings up this:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Editors_IDEs/Delphi/Q_23637902.html

but it does need you to register for a 30 day free trial of their facilities to see the answer ! .... ::

No doubt we will see a lot more of this soon - we were always writing cross-compilers back in the 80's. It was the only way to get something up and running fast with new processors being developed all of the time.

Z80 me NOT 6502 old stuff!

Oh, and by the way, most of you have seen my software in action! The moving LED signs in UK railway booking offices and many airports were ours...

Ken

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Apple and SimSig 02/02/2010 at 12:56 #6402
Sacro
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Clicking cache brings up http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:LrAygwy6yVIJ:www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Editors_IDEs/Delphi/Q_23637902.html+delphi+arm&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a which actually has the replies, no need to ever pay experts-exchange, it's pretty much a scam.

Not sure how easy it'd be to cross compile or port, might be better to rewrite using the .Net framework / Mono and then you'd be able to target the iPhone/iPad as well as Linux and OSX.

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Apple and SimSig 02/02/2010 at 15:14 #6408
Chrisrail
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Lardy wrote "Apple have just announced (15mins ago at time of writing) the new iPad. 9.7 in screen, 0.5 in thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 10 hour battery life....I already want one!

If only it could run SimSig....I'd be interested in trying to port it if there was enough of a call to do so and Geoff allowed me to!"

Lets get the other stuff done first !!!!!!!!!

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Apple and SimSig 02/02/2010 at 16:08 #6410
Sacro
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Yeah, also the iPad isn't legal in the US currently as they haven't yet sought FCC approval!
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Apple and SimSig 14/04/2010 at 07:15 #8485
Signaller@Amsterdam
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Little topic cick... but worth it I think...
In the link I put down below you can see a movie of a iPad running Windows 95. Of course it is one of the most crappy OS in the world... but If SimSig might run on Win95 aswell this might be the key to get it running on the iPad.

I think it's just a matter of time before they come up with a Windows XP solution....

Link: http://www.muzzle.nl/content/ (Site in Dutch... but the movie explains itself)

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Apple and SimSig 14/04/2010 at 10:56 #8495
Forest Pines
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SimSig certainly *did* run on Win95 when it was first released! Somewhere I still have my Didcot installation CD, which certainly works on any Win95 machines that might be hanging about.
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Apple and SimSig 14/04/2010 at 16:13 #8507
Sacro
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An iPad would be too slow to actually be usable, really the only way to run SimSig on it would be to port it over (not an easy task!).
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Apple and SimSig 14/04/2010 at 17:49 #8508
UKTrainMan
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Unless the iPad came with some kind of stand to hold it up at an angle I wouldn't want to run SimSig on it at all. Without the stand/rest thing it would either be flat on a table or propped up against a wall (and therefore liable to slipping and hitting the table with a bang) - playing SimSig on a flat table wouldn't work it would just be a right pain looking down over it, etc. Also holding it with one hand and signalling with another would also being annoying too.

Is it the angle or is the guy in the video having to reposition his finger further 'along' the screen to control the mouse? If he is then that'd make playing SimSig on it even worse.

Although as a cider drinker it would be quite comical using an Apple iPad and drinking Cider (made from Apples....)

Any views and / or opinions expressed by myself are from me personally and do not represent those of any company I either work for or am a consultant for.
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