Re: [hatari-devel] Enabling NatFeats

[Eero Tamminen <oak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

On sunnuntai 16 elokuu 2015, Uwe Seimet wrote:
> Next question ;-). Is there any suggested way how to extend the current
> natfeats? Looks to me as if the existing features are mainly related to
> the debugger.

The current features are implementation of subsets of
simpler NatFeats features provided by Aranym and some
useful features for debugging programs & test automation.


FYI: Aranym's more extensive NatFeats provide APIs
for direct host access of:
- file systems through the file system NatFeat
  and MiNT driver for that
- Booting kernel (MiNT) directly from host file
- OpenGL

There are no plains in supporting those in Hatari
due to implementation effort and them not being that
good match for what Hatari is aimed for.


> If I wanted to add additional features, is there a
> preferred way of doing that, some kind of extension point, some
> guideline?

The emulator interface is standardized by Aranym:
	http://wiki.aranym.org/natfeats/proposal

And supported both by EmuTOS and some MiNT drivers.
Examples of NatFeats implementation are in:
- Hatari side: src/debug/natfeats.c
- m68k side: tests/natfeats/*.[cs]


As to what kind of additional native features would
be acceptable in Hatari:
- If it implements same/similar larger functionality
  as some other emulator, it should use same API
  convensions
- To be accepted into Hatari, it should be of general
  usefulness

What kind of NF functionality you were thinking of adding?
Something related to networking?


	- Eero

> > On 16 Aug 2015 at 17:56, Uwe Seimet wrote:
> > > Are special compiler options required when compiling Hatari in order
> > > to enable the NatFeats feature? Opcode $7300 results in an exception
> > > via vector $10, but I would have expected the availability of
> > > NatFeats to be signalled, i.e. no exception. (The code is running in
> > > supervisor mode.)
> > 
> > Did you use "--natfeats true" on the Hatari command line?
> > 
> > Roger Burrows