[mupen64plus-pandora.git] / source / mupen64plus-core / doc / emuwiki-api-doc / Mupen64Plus_v2.0_Design_Proposal_3.txt

[http://mupen64plus.retrouprising.com Project page]

== Primary Goal ==

The primary goal of this re-architecture is to split this large project into smaller projects which may proceed to be developed independently of each other.  The advantages of the new architecture are:
* The build system can be greatly simplified
* Each module can use its own build system. For example, the Qt GUI might switch to cmake for better Qt integration.
* Porting the emulator core to other platforms (namely Win32) will be greatly simplified by removing the most platform-specific pieces.
* Making releases for each package will be simpler and faster
* Mupen64Plus may be included into the Debian/Ubuntu repositories since glN64 (with its 'unknown' license) will be a separate project

== Topography ==

This re-architecture will force us to lay boundaries with well-defined APIs between different parts of the emulator.  Here are some initial suggestions for the new layout of the modules:

# Mupen64plus-core
#* To simplify porting to other platforms, the core needs to be as lean as possible
#* For this reason, the GUI interfaces, the ROM cache, and the zip/lzma/7zip decompressors will be removed
#* The core will contain the code for:
#** Emulating the R4300 main CPU and memory systems
#** Loading and configuring plugins
#** Reading, parsing, and writing all configuration files for the core + plugins
#** Parsing and returning information about ROM images
#** Core user interface for keyboard and LIRC input
#** Savestates and screenshots
#** An on-screen display
#** Cheat and debugger core functions
#** 'Dummy' plugins
# Mupen64plus-console, Mupen64plus-gtk, Mupen64plus-qt
#* Command-line only, GTK, and Qt front-end interfaces
#* Each front-end for the core library will be a separate project
#* The ROM cache code will be forked and included into both GUIs
#* The front-ends will be responsible for finding and loading the core library and the plugins
#* The dynamic library handle of the core will be passed to all the plugins, and the dynamic library handle of the plugins will be passed to the core
#* The front-ends will be responsible for loading and decompressing the ROM image, and passing a pointer to the core
# Plugins (RiceVideo, glN64, glide64, Blight Input, JTTL Audio)
#* The plugins will be spun off into separate projects
#* The plugin API will change, and will be incompatible with the old Zilmar spec

== Project Owners ==
Richard42 will retain ownership of the Mupen64plus-core and Mupen64plus-console modules.  I will recommend that Slougi take ownership of the Qt GUI.  The plugins and GTK GUI are up for grabs.

== Work To Do ==
Tasks which have been completed will be marked with the <s>strikethrough</s> format.

=== Prior to starting on the code ===
# <s>Write design document for Core API</s>
#* Front-end + debugger + cheat
#* Configuration interface
#* Video plugin
#* Audio plugin
#* Input plugin
#* RSP plugin
# <s>Set up new Mercurial repository for project</s>
=== Coding tasks ===
# <s>First steps</s>
#* <s>Split & fork the source files into new structure</s>
# Core
#* <s>Refactor/simplify makefiles</s>
#* <s>Remove #include statements from header files</s>
#* <s>Write new configuration load/parse/save functionality</s>
#* <s>Separate event loop out of main.c into new source file</s>
#* <s>Fix broken WM_KeyDown/WM_KeyUp commands sent to input plugin</s>
#* <s>Remove main() function</s>
#* <s>Remove main/winlnxdefs.h</s>
#* <s>Add new shared library interface (Must be thread-safe and re-entrant where necessary)</s>
#** <s>api/callbacks.c</s>
#** <s>api/common.c</s>
#** <s>api/config.c</s>
#** <s>api/debugger.c</s>
#** <s>api/frontend.c</s>
#** <s>api/vidext.c</s>
#* <s>Refactor core code for new debug info interface (instead of printf(), send back to front-end)</s>
#* <s>Modify plugin-handling code to use new plugin API</s>
#* <s>Fix 64-bit dynamic recompiler for dynamic lib</s>
#* <s>Update translate.c file handling and translations</s>
#* <s>Update cheat.c cheat code handling</s>
#* <s>Remove compare_core.c, add core comparison feature to console-ui</s>
#* <s>Generate versioned core library</s>
#* <s>Simplify makefile / pre.mk</s>
#* <s>Refactor install.sh</s>
#* Go through google code issue list, apply patches and close issue reports
# Front-ends
#* <s>Refactor/simplify makefiles</s>
## <s>CLI</s>
##* <s>Write from scratch, based on main.c</s>
##* Update man page
## GUI-Qt
##* Adapt from previous mupen64puls Qt GUI code, pulling code from CLI front-end (Slougi)
## GUI-GTK
##* Adapt from previous mupen64puls GTK GUI code, pulling code from CLI front-end (TBD)
# <s>Plug-ins</s>
#* For each plug-in:
#** <s>m64p-rsp-hle</s>
#** <s>m64p-audio-sdl</s>
#** <s>m64p-video-rice</s>
#** <s>m64p-input-sdl</s>
#* Remove existing configuration read/write code
#* Add Deadzone and Scaling parameters to Blight Input plugin
#* Refactor to use new configuration interface through core library
#* Refactor for changes in core plugin API
#* Refactor for new debug info interface (instead of printf(), send back to front-end)
Commit	Line	Data
451ab91e	1	[http://mupen64plus.retrouprising.com Project page]
	2
	3	== Primary Goal ==
	4
	5	The primary goal of this re-architecture is to split this large project into smaller projects which may proceed to be developed independently of each other. The advantages of the new architecture are:
	6	* The build system can be greatly simplified
	7	* Each module can use its own build system. For example, the Qt GUI might switch to cmake for better Qt integration.
	8	* Porting the emulator core to other platforms (namely Win32) will be greatly simplified by removing the most platform-specific pieces.
	9	* Making releases for each package will be simpler and faster
	10	* Mupen64Plus may be included into the Debian/Ubuntu repositories since glN64 (with its 'unknown' license) will be a separate project
	11
	12	== Topography ==
	13
	14	This re-architecture will force us to lay boundaries with well-defined APIs between different parts of the emulator. Here are some initial suggestions for the new layout of the modules:
	15
	16	# Mupen64plus-core
	17	#* To simplify porting to other platforms, the core needs to be as lean as possible
	18	#* For this reason, the GUI interfaces, the ROM cache, and the zip/lzma/7zip decompressors will be removed
	19	#* The core will contain the code for:
	20	#** Emulating the R4300 main CPU and memory systems
	21	#** Loading and configuring plugins
	22	#** Reading, parsing, and writing all configuration files for the core + plugins
	23	#** Parsing and returning information about ROM images
	24	#** Core user interface for keyboard and LIRC input
	25	#** Savestates and screenshots
	26	#** An on-screen display
	27	#** Cheat and debugger core functions
	28	#** 'Dummy' plugins
	29	# Mupen64plus-console, Mupen64plus-gtk, Mupen64plus-qt
	30	#* Command-line only, GTK, and Qt front-end interfaces
	31	#* Each front-end for the core library will be a separate project
	32	#* The ROM cache code will be forked and included into both GUIs
	33	#* The front-ends will be responsible for finding and loading the core library and the plugins
	34	#* The dynamic library handle of the core will be passed to all the plugins, and the dynamic library handle of the plugins will be passed to the core
	35	#* The front-ends will be responsible for loading and decompressing the ROM image, and passing a pointer to the core
	36	# Plugins (RiceVideo, glN64, glide64, Blight Input, JTTL Audio)
	37	#* The plugins will be spun off into separate projects
	38	#* The plugin API will change, and will be incompatible with the old Zilmar spec
	39
	40	== Project Owners ==
	41	Richard42 will retain ownership of the Mupen64plus-core and Mupen64plus-console modules. I will recommend that Slougi take ownership of the Qt GUI. The plugins and GTK GUI are up for grabs.
	42
	43	== Work To Do ==
	44	Tasks which have been completed will be marked with the <s>strikethrough</s> format.
	45
	46	=== Prior to starting on the code ===
	47	# <s>Write design document for Core API</s>
	48	#* Front-end + debugger + cheat
	49	#* Configuration interface
	50	#* Video plugin
	51	#* Audio plugin
	52	#* Input plugin
	53	#* RSP plugin
	54	# <s>Set up new Mercurial repository for project</s>
	55	=== Coding tasks ===
	56	# <s>First steps</s>
	57	#* <s>Split & fork the source files into new structure</s>
	58	# Core
	59	#* <s>Refactor/simplify makefiles</s>
	60	#* <s>Remove #include statements from header files</s>
	61	#* <s>Write new configuration load/parse/save functionality</s>
	62	#* <s>Separate event loop out of main.c into new source file</s>
	63	#* <s>Fix broken WM_KeyDown/WM_KeyUp commands sent to input plugin</s>
	64	#* <s>Remove main() function</s>
65	#* <s>Remove main/winlnxdefs.h</s>
66	#* <s>Add new shared library interface (Must be thread-safe and re-entrant where necessary)</s>
67	#** <s>api/callbacks.c</s>
68	#** <s>api/common.c</s>
69	#** <s>api/config.c</s>
70	#** <s>api/debugger.c</s>
71	#** <s>api/frontend.c</s>
72	#** <s>api/vidext.c</s>
73	#* <s>Refactor core code for new debug info interface (instead of printf(), send back to front-end)</s>
74	#* <s>Modify plugin-handling code to use new plugin API</s>
75	#* <s>Fix 64-bit dynamic recompiler for dynamic lib</s>
76	#* <s>Update translate.c file handling and translations</s>
77	#* <s>Update cheat.c cheat code handling</s>
78	#* <s>Remove compare_core.c, add core comparison feature to console-ui</s>
79	#* <s>Generate versioned core library</s>
80	#* <s>Simplify makefile / pre.mk</s>
81	#* <s>Refactor install.sh</s>
82	#* Go through google code issue list, apply patches and close issue reports
83	# Front-ends
84	#* <s>Refactor/simplify makefiles</s>
85	## <s>CLI</s>
86	##* <s>Write from scratch, based on main.c</s>
87	##* Update man page
88	## GUI-Qt
89	##* Adapt from previous mupen64puls Qt GUI code, pulling code from CLI front-end (Slougi)
90	## GUI-GTK
91	##* Adapt from previous mupen64puls GTK GUI code, pulling code from CLI front-end (TBD)
92	# <s>Plug-ins</s>
93	#* For each plug-in:
94	#** <s>m64p-rsp-hle</s>
95	#** <s>m64p-audio-sdl</s>
96	#** <s>m64p-video-rice</s>
97	#** <s>m64p-input-sdl</s>
98	#* Remove existing configuration read/write code
99	#* Add Deadzone and Scaling parameters to Blight Input plugin
100	#* Refactor to use new configuration interface through core library
101	#* Refactor for changes in core plugin API
102	#* Refactor for new debug info interface (instead of printf(), send back to front-end)
103