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[Firewave]

With all those changes going on with the MESS softlists all the time, it would be nice, if there could be some improvements made.

Everytime one of the .xml files changes I have to manually add it again in the profiler, select the correct folder, than ask, if I want it to be updated. It would be nice, if it would treat the .xmls like binaries, so you specifiy the source and when you open it and it has changed the cached data will be updated.

Another thing would be a "big" rebuilder. So instead selecting multiple sets and it will start the rebuilder for each of them, it will take all the data and only scan the filesystem once and rebuild them. I am quite aware, that this might be impossible, because of the different merge options, folders, settings etc. since I have a big folder with a lot of unknown roms in it and processing it over and over for each set feel unnecessary.

[Roman]

you haven't seen the Merry XMas... post, have you?
Currently I'm doing some improvements on software lists which include:

- support for multiple softwarelists
- direct import (all, none, some) from mess/mame binary
- handling them as systems, so you can (actually have to) split them by rompaths

so I guess with these updates, your two requests most likely become obsolete.....

[Firewave]

Ah, cool. Looking forward to that. I haven't spent any time on any forum in the past few months. Only take quick looks at the main page.

[Roman]

ok...current state:

Done:
- parsing multiple software lists inside a dat
- if count(software lists) > 1, add lists as systems, system's autodect and move sets also works fine already
- if an emulator binary (e.g. MAME/MESS) got software lists in -listxml listed, cmpro asks you if you want to import them (all, none, some)...and lets you pick them. Depending on the selection, cmpro runs the binary again with single calls to the picked lists or (if all) it reruns with a -listsoftware call.
- setnames and descriptions only have to be unique within one list
- in set information, show software lists as additional root items and insert the games to the beloning list

TO_DO:
- remember picked lists for next exe update
- add variables to pick lists in set information's select sets
- force usage of sysdefpaths (yes, you need to define them there
- think about dat export, profile name in case of multilist (currently it uses the 1st software list name) and how issues are reported (where to put the list name)

- do some scan/rebuild tests

Some pics:

Set Information: http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/images/mess1.jpg
Systems: http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/images/mess2.jpg
Exe Import (just the list picker...selection is not corresponding to upper pics): http://mamedev.emulab.it/clrmamepro/images/mess3.jpg

I've used a pretty old MESS by the way....

[Firewave]

Just an idea off the top of my head. A way to differ between CHD and non-CHD softlists (or the type in general). MESS has separate softlist for different devices like floppy, cassettes, harddisks. Might make no sense at all in the context of clrmame. Just thinking out loud here since I don't maintain the CHD (i.e. CD_ROM) softlists.

[etabeta]

you're assuming a bit too much

the splitting depends heavily on each single case. e.g. c64_cart has entries which consist of both a cart and a floppy, and in general entries can well include multiple different media

OTOH, kudos to Roman. This improvement is appreciated a lot!!
As a remark, you might want to notice that while the expected behavior is having users to store software in a subfolder of the rompath having the same name as the xml file, in principle a user could store all the roms in the roms/ folder with e.g. a single bublbobl.zip or a single tetris.zip containing all the conversions for the various systems, and MESS would be able to load the right one...

[Roman]

there are currently no naming limitations for the paths...you only need to specify a rompath for each softwarelist (as you may know from the old sysdefpaths)....autodetect helps you....

to give a short update...while the visual things, parsers and rebuilder/merger are done, I'm currently looking at the scanner....generally the dupe check, the 'wrong sysdefpath' checks needs some update since you can now have equally named sets in various lists....here and there are some game lookup by name which needs a bit of review, too...
Don't expect anything soon since I will be on a business trip soon....