Thanks for the reply, Roman.
The official way of storing chds was always rompath\setname\chdfilename. Besides of that, MAME's official storing method for any file was always rompath\setname\file 1... file n....for decompressed sets which simply becomes rompath\setname.zip for compressed sets (file 1...file n is then inside the archive).
So I read. Why? Has anybody *not* on the developer teams decided to ask why they chose this mechanism?
Back in the past due to a MAME bug it was possible to store them in a rompath root.
After the big CHD update in MAME .130 (oh yes, all chds need to be updated via chdman), Devs decided to re-allow the rompath at root level storage (which is still weird since you won't see to which set it belongs...since usually chdfilenames don't match a setname anymore but are chosen by the original hd/cd/whatever device).
Yes, I had to CHDMAN -update some of the roms I downloaded - again, a process instigated by developers who think only fellow technically-adept developers have an interest in this project. I think it was naive to expect players to do this. Joe Sixpack wouldn't have bothered, just slunk away. Who knows how many gave up. I nearly did, and I'm a developer and sysadmin.
Why was this necessary, and was it the only way to achieve it? Considering that CHD's are supposed to be verbatim copies of disks from the original machines, they won't have changed or be needed to be changed, so why did they *all* need to be updated? The data on the arcade machines disks haven't changed since they were built, some of them twentyfive years ago. I've not heard of any of them needed to be updated. Therefore, my inference is that it was a sop to the emulator, maybe to help it store some kind of meta-data, or to help it run? It can't be critical as I read that pre-.130 CHDs did not need to be updated "if one could tolerate the error message". Sounds like a critical reason for updating every CHD, then, I don't think. The developers have full control of how the software interacts with the CHD's - it would make more sense to me to change MAME to work with the CHD files which could be universal and work with any other emulator. What really was this "change" supposed to accomplish?
Likewise, ROMs seem to need updating often, despite some of the machines they come from not being updated for may decades. Once a ROM is dumped, and MAME is developed to work with it, it would stay the same, surely? Any improvement to MAME's ability to run this ROM will be made to the MAME executable, won't it? So why are changes being made to ROM's?
If you want to use chds on rompath root, you need to tell cmpro so. Scanner Advanced->Allow CHDS in rompath root.
Yes, I discovered this. It even created all the directories for me - once. Never did it again, no matter how I provoked it.
I just don't understand the requirement for this extravagant folder tree, at all.
A set is a collection of roms and/or samples and/or chds. There are CHD-only sets, there are rom only sets and other combinations. Easiest is to see a set as the archive (.zip) which holds the single roms for example. A set + name check checks the name of the zip while a rom + name check checks the romfiles inside the archive.
Does an end-player need to know all this? Why can't the software just look after it all? A sane naming scheme would do this - single zip file for all roms, CHD's for any disk image (LD,HD) required, and all in the same directory to permit cross-usage by clones, etc. "Simples", as the Meerkat says. We don't need to run a tracking repository into user-land.
>Why does Fishermans Bait want to rename 889ua.chd to *two* others - 889ja.chd *and* 889aa.chd?
Because the name check is set based and depending on the set it tries to find a best fitting name. And depending on your disk tag merge settings it decides which to use. Another reason to keep chds in the offical subfolder way.
Well, this is just another kludge, in my view, to keep a disfunctional naming scheme running. It's desperately in need of a rethink.
So to sum it up: clrmamepro handles chds absolutely correctly in both storing modes, but you need to tell cmpro which one to use...(and the majority of users prefers the chd in subfolder mode).
I haven't seen a poll asking what users prefer, so I'm not convinced!
My *guess* is that people who just want to play the games don't really care, so it would make more sense if that was considered in term of choosing storage mechanism. Currently, this is far from the case, and appears to be a unnecessary enforcement of developers personal dictats. And I am a software developer, so I speak from an ashamed experience, where many of my kind have to be hit over the head with wet kippers before they can be made to understand that end users are not developers, something Microsoft has yet to embrace... (but that's another story!)
Thanks for the reply - apologies if some of my comments, particularly towards the developers, seems a little caustic, but sometimes they just have to be shown that some of their thinking is not in-line with ordinary Joe Sixpack. Absolutely, they work very hard, and I am in awe of what they produce - I certainly couldn't do it. But I do know how to manage a software development program properly, and I am stunned by how such a great piece of software could have such a letdown of a storage scheme - the forums are full of "how do I"'s over where to place ROMs and CHD's and such.
It's not uncommon - some very talented techies lack the ability to empathise with others, to "dumb-down" their strong technical abilites to the ordinary user. Some say that Aspergers Syndrome plays a part here. I'm not sure, but I personally do know that the best techs often need a novice tech to smooth them down and properly harness their abilities. Maybe that's needed here.
Clrmame doesn't seem to work as well here with CHDs, either, but I'm not sure I am working the software right to be certain. (That fact *alone* should be a wake-up call to many - the need for all these switches and boxes all over the place - doesn't it seem to you, Roman, if you stop and think about it, that it's all a bit "over-the-top"? Try explaining it all to somebody over-60, or under-20!). Clrmame is flawless for ROMS, that's certain, and I think it's great for this. I don't understand why it can't *seem* (I could be wrong) to manipulate CHD's so "automatically" - but then, I think this is in part down to the sub-folder requirement.
I just want Clrmame to be pointed at a "before" directory containing all the ROMs and CHDs, tell it to rebuild, and it produce an "after" folder with all chds in the correct folders. I've not been able to achieve it. A nice big, red, "fix-it-all-and-don't-bother-me-cos-I-just-want-to-play-MAME-and-dont-care-how-it's-stored" button, would be really nice. Not because *I* need it (but I'd use it!), but because I think many others do.
I challenge anybody to give me *one* really good reason why everything cannot be stored in one folder, ROMs and CHDs. I can see no technically or operationally beneficial reason.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for all your contributions!