STATUS OF THE MAC PORT:
-----------------------

23 Dec 1998

Contents:

	Status
	How to Set up MacBochs
	Problems
	Other Issues
	New Files
	Changed Files


Status
------

This is an experimental Macintosh port of Bochs. The Mac port compiles fine
under CodeWarrior Pro R1 (CW12) and is capable of booting Win95 in command-
line mode and running DOS programs. A CodeWarrior project ("Bochs.proj") is
included (you may need to edit the type and creator information with ResEdit
in order for CodeWarrior to recognise it as a project file).

NOTE: MacBochs is very much a "work in progress", and much of the code is
incomplete. This preliminary version is being made available mainly to
interested developers who may want to contribute to the development of
MacBochs by contributing some code or testing it on their own Macs.

If anyone can test with some "clean" Windows installer disks, it would be
useful. I've been testing MacBochs with my SoftWindows HD image and disk
images derived from it, and I'm not sure if the various SoftWindows-specific
drivers are interfering.

23 Dec 98 - updated MacBochs to bochs-981222. The new version seems
noticeably faster. Finished implementing the Bochs headerbar. Added support
for ejecting floppy disks from within Bochs (click the Drive A: icon on the
headerbar or press Cmd-E).

17 Dec 98 - added real floppy disk support. Also optimized the graphics
screen drawing a bit more. Keyboard support still broken and in need of a
major overhaul. Does anyone have experience with KCHR resources and
KeyTranslate()?


How to Set up MacBochs
----------------------

This is a very brief, step-by-step guide on setting up MacBochs. More
detailed documentation will be available later.

- Step 1. Compile the version of Bochs you want to use (PPC, 68k or FAT) or
obtain a pre-compiled binary. There is a CodeWarrior project included with
the source distribution.

- Step 2. Create a hard disk image.
Bochs ALWAYS needs a hard disk image available to it, otherwise it won't
boot. To create a hard disk image on the Mac, you need to use a recent
version of DiskCopy.

First, create an untitled, empty folder anywhere on your Mac hard disk. Then,
launch DiskCopy and choose to create a folder image of that folder.

DO NOT ENTER THE DISK SIZE IN MEGABYTES. In the file "install.html" in the
"docs-html" folder you will find a table of disk sizes and geometries. Make a
note of the number of total SECTORS required for your desired hard disk size,
as well as the cylinders, heads and sectors per track (spt).

In DiskCopy, you need to choose "Custom..." from the menu of image sizes, and
choose to enter the size in "blocks" (on the Mac, a block is pretty much the
same as a sector). Then enter the number of total sectors you need.

Make sure the image is "Read/Write", not "Read Only", and make sure you have
entered the correct cyl=, heads= and spt= settings in your bochsrc file. Your
image file should now be accessible to Bochs.

You'll eventually need to use a utility like "fdisk" to make the image
readable.

- Step 3. Obtain a bootable PC floppy or floppy image.
You'll need to install an operating system in order to do anything useful
with Bochs. If you have installer floppies for a PC operating system (eg.
Windows or MS-DOS) you can use those. Otherwise you can download disk images
for FreeDOS or one of the many variants of Linux.

MacBochs now supports real PC floppy disks. To use the Mac floppy drive
instead of a disk image, use the special filename "[fd:]" in the appropriate
line of your bochsrc.

- Step 4. Set up your bochsrc file.
You set up your Bochs preferences by editing the "bochsrc" file. You'll need
to set up your bochsrc to work with your floppy and hard disk images, as well
as telling Bochs how many megs of PC RAM you want.

Problems
--------

There are some so far unresolved problems in the "macintosh.cc" GUI file:

- Keyboard support is VERY rudimentary; ie. it only supports alphanumerics
and a couple of special keys like Enter. The keyboard-related code is full of
holes and I'm going to completely rehash it.

- Mouse support hasn't been tested, but probably isn't fully working either.


Other Issues
------------

- The Mac port uses a ready-made config file (configmac.h), like the Win32
port used to. Macs are pretty homogeneous, so the settings should be
appropriate for most machines.

- The Mac port has an extra source file: "macutils.c" (with header file
"macutils.h"), which is used for Mac floppy drive support, among other
things.

- Like the Win32 port, the Mac port expects the "bochsrc" file to be in the
same directory as the Bochs application.

- Be sure to use Mac pathname conventions when editing the bochsrc file (ie
':' instead of '/' or '\').


New files
---------

The following are new, Mac-specific files:

gui/macintosh.cc
configmac.h
macutils.h
macutils.c
Bochs.proj


Changed Files
-------------

The following files from the main bochs distribution have been modified to
compile properly on the Mac:

bochs.h
main.cc
memory/memory.cc
memory/misc_mem.cc
iodev/floppy.cc
iodev/harddrv.cc

The changes are just conditional compilations which won't affect other
platforms (search for "#ifdef macintosh" and "#ifndef macintosh" if you want
to see what the changes are). These changes will need to be integrated into
the main distribution if the MacOS port is going to go ahead seriously.

-- David Batterham <drbatter@socs.uts.edu.au> or <drbatter@yahoo.com>
