What is Alky?
Alky (pronounced "AL-KEE") is a tool that allows you to convert a Windows executable to a Mac OS X or Linux binary. We are focused on high-end gaming at the moment, though we will support other applications in the future. Our binary translation layer is already working fully for OS X and Linux support is in progress. Of course, Windows applications use a very different set of libraries from Linux or OS X applications so we are also working on a library called LibAlky that will provide those Windows libraries to the application.
How is Alky different from Wine?
Alky may seem similar to Wine/libwine in many ways, but Alky differs on a few major points:
- Alky requires no Wine server-like software, reducing overhead greatly.
- Alky converts binaries rather than running them through it at runtime, so a vendor can use it to port an application and ship with it without requiring any additional dependencies on the user's machine.
- Since Alky runs at the binary level, applications can be ported without any access to the source.
- Since Alky doesn't depend on access to the source to port applications (as noted in #3) we can greatly clean up the APIs, so long as we keep them binary-compatible. This gives us a lot of freedom.
The Wine Method:
The Alky Method:
When an application is converted with Alky, the imports are checked to see what's supported and what isn't. For functions that aren't supported, it will report them as such (at conversion-time, mind you) and will optionally pull up a function prototype from MSDN and auto-generate a stub for you. In this way, we can very easily extend LibAlky without playing a guessing game as to what needs to be implemented. Although it's a very new project, it will already convert (nearly) any Windows executable into a Mac OS X executable and attempt to run it, with some success and a fair amount more debug data.
Is Alky an open source project?
Yes! The Alky source code was released under the LGPL license.
How can I help out?
We're glad you asked! The project is still getting started and is in the early phases of organization right now. If you are you a strong C programmer with Mac or Linux experience then we can really use your help with this project! Please go to the "How to Help" section of our wiki, join the developers mailing lists, and visit us in the forums or on IRC to get started.
