www.virtualacorn.co.uk/forum

At the moment, Virtual Acorn emulates ARM processors and runs ARM code on the emulators. That slows things down some. The emulators are hosted by Windows - another layer of problems, not the least of which are the shifting sands of Windows upgrades. Wouldn't it be nice to get the full benifit of our powerful Intel-type processors by compiling RISCOS to run natively like Linux?

It is true that current RISCOS applications would also need recompiling but, considering how much work has already been deamed worthwhile making the emulators work, would it be so outrageosly difficult to interpret ARM source to cross-compile it for an Intel-compatible version of RISCOS?

Imagine the enormous advantages for marketing RISCOS as a full-fledged PC OS as well as the current 'enthusiast-ARM-emulator' fix! It might even stimulate the market for the 'original ARM hardware'. It would certainly attract a new generation of programmers. With a new cross-compiler, these new programmers would find it easy to produce software for both physical platforms.

Does anyone else think this would be fun and cool?