Wish to qualify this response as statements of reasoning, not as attack or drama.
No. Let it die.
No. ZSNES is worthy of an update and for very good reasons; Functionality, fine-frained controls, options and UI appearance.
Examples;
1. Rewind function - Gameplay can be put in "rewind" reverting back a user defined number of frames. This can be useful when a player makes a mistake and only wants to go back a few seconds instead of going back to a save point or savestate.
2. Fine grained emulation speed options - ZSNES allows the player to setup a host of speed options which can fine-tune emulation to the player's liking.
3. Video filters - ZSNES is unparalleled in fine-grained video filtering options many of which are poorly implemented or not offered in other emulators
4. Fine grained audio controls - ZSNES has many options for controlling sound output, including master volume, interpolation and low-pass filtering. MOST of those options are not found in other emulators.
5. Cheat code options - The cheat engine ZSNES offers is second to none.
This list could go on, but those are the important highlights.
I understand the nostalgia factor, but unless somebody wants to completely rip out the entire emulation engine and rebuild it from the ground up, there's simply no way to bring it up to par with current levels of understanding in terms of accuracy.
Perhaps that's true, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a well loved emulator that is still in wide-spread use.
It's hack jobs layered on more hack jobs. And doing that work to fix it up would end up costing pretty much all of its benefits in terms of speed.
As my programing experience is a bit lack-luster, I'll take your word for it.
And the alternative, just throwing new features at it in its current state would only give the false impression that it's not a dead project, when that's exactly what it is.
That's a matter of opinion. It's not dead if it's still in use. And Fusoya released an update of his 8MB version not to long ago. So it's hardly dead. Every person I know[irl] who emulates in Windows or Linux prefers ZSNES. The sole exception to that is a friend who does tinkering in No$SNS and Higan.
Your point of view is understandable. SNES9x is a very good emulator, no one can easily argue against that point. However, it is lacking a great many features that make ZSNES truly shine. Maybe it needs some code cleanup and maybe MSU-1 would fit right in. Who knows if it's not tried. I'd do/try it myself, but the required skill is beyond my level of expertise. Thus the suggestion..