[Feature] wxCatapult: assorted general FR [sf#253]

[openMSX-import]

Reported by joxy on 2013-08-02 06:32 UTC (14:06:25) egp1: Vampier: promise... i mainly promised to maintain wxcatapult (14:06:34) egp1: Vampier: no other promises (14:07:52) Vampier_: egp_1: well that sucks (14:08:01) egp1: Vampier: what sucks? (14:08:08) Vampier_: I think we're all under the impression you are going to change catapult and make it better (14:08:53) egp1: Vampier: I am myself under this impression =) I prefer slow coding esp. noting that I don't know C++ standards (14:10:11) egp_1: I am studying that stuff (14:10:17) egp_1: C++ standards (14:10:22) egp1: slowly (14:10:29) Vampier: well... then don't study catapult (14:10:30) Vampier: :D (14:10:31) Vampier: lol (14:10:44) ***BiFi hopes this maintenance will include adding access to the newly added settings and other features since major updating has stopped (14:11:01) egp_1: BiFi: sure (14:11:43) egp1: BiFi: that is planned. But first I need to fix existing bugs (14:12:54) Vampier: egp1: the code needs an overhaul (14:13:03) Vampier: a serious overhaul (14:13:18) Vampier: wouter is already starting with this (14:13:27) Vampier: making it more up-to-standard (14:13:27) egp1: first, bugfixes. Then, the overhaul (14:13:35) Vampier: lol (14:13:42) Vampier_: how about both at the same time? (14:14:31) egp1: Vampier: that is unmanageable method (14:14:38) egp_1: I prefer step by step (14:15:42) egp1: "At the same time" is uncontrollable. I fail to track all code leads in my memory. (14:17:36) Vampier: I think we should have 1) control module 2) communication model 3) GUI model (14:18:03) Vampier: one of the most important feature requests is probably for the disk manipulator (14:18:13) Vampier: creating harddisks (14:18:17) Vampier: filling harddisks (14:18:21) Vampier: etc etc (14:18:58) egp1: As in virtualbox, for example... (14:19:36) Vampier: no (14:19:40) Vampier: diskmanipulator (14:19:47) Vampier: openMSX already has it build in (14:19:54) egp_1: yup, i forgot (14:20:20) egp_1: I will file this log as a general FR (14:21:28) egp1: And file BiFi's hopes, too, there (14:26:30) Vampier: egp1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It-UE97uTFw (14:26:31) Vampier: check this (14:27:28) BiFi: it's a good idea to have some graphical user interfacing for the diskmanipulator (14:28:18) BiFi: from my old sources I noticed I had to add elements manually in 2 places which should be filled automatically: romtypes and pluggables (14:30:37) Vampier: the cheatfinder and color changer are not as cool (14:30:44) Vampier: but at the time they certainly where cool

[openMSX-import]

Commented by joxy on 2013-08-02 06:50 UTC Wouter writes: If you're looking for additional work, then you can consider adding support for new features in catapult. Since the time wxcatapult development stalled, openMSX itself has gained a bunch of new features. For example savestates and replays. But check the release notes (or commit log) for a full list. I don't know how to add all those features in catapult without cluttering the interface too much.

[openMSX-import]

Commented by joxy on 2013-08-02 07:14 UTC Wouter writes:

BTW2: Some more background info (very much over-simplified):

wxcatapult: GUI is very static, e.g.always shows 2 disk drives, whether the actual msx machine has 0, 1, 2 (or even more) diskdrives

qt-catapult: the GUI is much more dynamic: e.g. you select a msx machine without disk-drives ->GUI won't show disk selection. You then insert a disk-drive extension -> GUI will dynamically add disk selection. Though because openmsx and catapult run in a separate process and the communication between both is asynchronous, this makes some (conceptually easy) things rather complex.

Manuel writes:

I really recommend you to try the Qt based Catapult. It gives a clear idea on what we actually intended for such a type of launcher.

You can run it with PyQt, under Linux it's easiest to try.

Code is here: https://sourceforge.net/p/openmsx/catapult/ci/master/tree/

Even if it' may not be the ideal GUI.

egp_: We could make it ideal.

The Qt based Catapult was an attempt to make it ideal :P It uses communication with openMSX for everything, while the old wxCatapult only does this very limitedly and mostly relies on commandline arguments, including duplicating knowledge of openMSX in itself and having a very complex start up of openMSX.

egp_ writes:

Wouter writes:

BTW2: Some more background info (very much over-simplified):

wxcatapult: GUI is very static, e.g.always shows 2 disk drives, whether the actual msx machine has 0, 1, 2 (or even more) diskdrives

This could easily be a feature request. (1)

qt-catapult: the GUI is much more dynamic: e.g. you select a msx machine without disk-drives ->GUI won't show disk selection. You then insert a disk-drive extension -> GUI will dynamically add disk selection.

This should be implemented within (1) above.

[openMSX-import]

Commented by joxy on 2013-08-02 10:21 UTC (low priority) currently all wxString parameters are passed by value, in many cases it's better to instead pass 'const wxString&' parameters.