I've come to the conclusion that the entire RC2014 ecosystem is a hot dumpster fire.
I spent much of today just trying to get some kind of emulator or build tools ... built.
No luck so far. What am I missing?
@vertigo because of you I took a quick look at the #rc2014 ... seems like such a good idea and very cute. Im sure somegroup out there is fixing it and making it better. im saddened to hear its so difficult to work with. #retrocomputing #z80
@davidpgil I regret that I see no evidence that anyone is working to make the developer experience better. The common response seems to be, "Post a question on the mailing lists."
@vertigo ... for the uninformed or lazy who may stumble upon this post.. the #rc2014 is cute #retrocomputing platform incarnate! https://rc2014.co.uk/
@vertigo ... ugh, they have a google group? what were they thinking?
@davidpgil There appears to be two approaches to minimizing support load:
(1) Set up a group somewhere on a common messaging platform and let everyone help each other through mutual aid,
OR
(2) Make it so that, to the greatest extent possible, that you don't need that support group.
It looks like the RC2014 community chose (1), while I'm opting for (2). A support group for the Kestrel will be needed eventually; but, my goal is to minimize its necessity.
@davidpgil I can't tell if that's even relevant. I literally have not even gotten that far.
I can't even rebuild the BASIC ROMs that come with the standard distribution. I need a copy of asz80, which is part of a package that I don't yet have, and was *never* mentioned in the docs anywhere.
@vertigo the project seems young. Maybe just message the lead dev 🤔
@davidpgil I'm taking a gamble -- I'm *guessing* that their customized copy of z88dk SDK is what's used to build the ROMs.
@davidpgil My gamble failed -- it creates z80asm, but not asz80.
That said, z88dk built fine once I resolved a missing libxml2-dev dependency. So *that* works, at least.
I suppose I could use that code and target my Z80 work against the Commodore 128 for now, since Vice is a pretty easy piece of software to install and get working.
@davidpgil (Not sure why I didn't think of targeting the C128 until now. I just forgot it had a Z80 in it, I guess.)
@davidpgil Ah ha! After much searching, I found the following emulator, which even emulates the RAM/ROM 512K card I will be receiving. Sweet!
@vertigo see? you just needed a dummy like me to nudge you in the right direction. 😅
@vertigo a few others haha
Server run by the main developers of the project 
It is not focused on any particular niche interest - everyone is welcome as long as you follow our code of conduct!
Meanwhile, #kestrel3 emulation built out of the box for everyone who's tried it so far.
I may be wrong; but, so far, it doesn't seem like it takes a whole lot of effort to make software that is discoverable and easily built, run. Especially those targeting developers
.