Usability enhancements to Configuration GUI

[aybe]

Describe the solution you'd like

Some usability issue with the config GUI:

Use caps/good naming appropriately for clarity:

• SDL, MIDI, DOS, PC-98, IPX, etc...

Sort options alphabetically:

Right now it's extremely difficult to spot the right option you need, they aren't sorted at all:

[Wengier]

I agree! Section names like SDL, MIDI, DOS, PC-98, IPX can be capitalized, and some sorting is good too. By the way, in the latest code there is a "Show advanced options" checkbox which if unchecked will only show common config options (instead of all of them), which probably make it easier to use for normal users

[aybe]

Yesterday I tried to take a look at that and by doing so, I suddenly remembered how much of a mess is the code base.

• changing section.GetName won't work as it's used for both display and config
• autoexec is a special case
• litterals everywhere, just for the sake of easiness people have done insane copy/paste
  • some extra header would have been so much smarter, write once/reuse
  • replacing some things needs hundreds of replacements
• and it's not C# world, sometimes, tiny changes trigger lot of recompilation

Extremely frustrating then I abandoned because it already was very late.

[Wengier]

@aybe It is possible to separate the name for display and config, and I have already done this in the latest code. You can see the screenshots below:

[Wengier]

Perhaps section names like "Ide primary" can be capitalized to "IDE Primary" too.

[Wengier]

A new screenshot with section names like "Ide, primary" capitalized as well:

[aybe]

Great !

What about

• PC-98
• V-Sync
• SB or SB/SBPRO/SB16 ?
• PC Speaker
• maybe COM, LPT ?
• MS-DOS
• IDE port 1 or IDE #1 or Hard Disk 1, Hard Drive 1
• FDC or Floppy Disk
• 4DOS
• CONFIG.SYS
• AUTOEXEC.BAT

[Wengier]

Good suggestions! How about this:

[aybe]

I've been scratching my head trying to find a better layout :

Now using columns instead ! I find it much easier to read.

As you can see I tried to group by topic/category...

Let me know what you think.

[Wengier]

@aybe Nice looking! It is certainly a good improvement over the original.