[fuse-emulator-devel] [ fuse-emulator-Patches-3208815 ] Statusbar shows current machine

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Patches item #3208815, was opened at 2011-03-13 23:27
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by fredm
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Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Sergio Baldovi (sbaldovi)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Statusbar shows current machine

Initial Comment:
I think it would be useful to identify the currently emulated machine in a visible area, specially after loading a snapshot.

The attached patch identify the machine in the status bar.

Any comments or suggestions?

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>Comment By: Fredrick Meunier (fredm)
Date: 2011-03-20 23:29

Message:
And by "reset" I mean "select"

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Comment By: Fredrick Meunier (fredm)
Date: 2011-03-20 23:20

Message:
One specific comment on the patch - you don't need to add the new
ui_statusbar_update_machine() function to handle this, uidisplay_init() is
called on each machine reset and the machine information can be handled
there.

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Comment By: Fredrick Meunier (fredm)
Date: 2011-03-20 22:52

Message:
>> it does raise the question of all the other peripherals and mass
>> storage etc. that can be part of the machine definition and which
>> doesn't seem to be present in very successful emulators (e.g.
>> VMWare doesn't try to tell you about the virtual machine config
>> in the status bar)
>
> Not exactly the same. In VMWare you know what machine is
> starting, however, a snapshot load is like a Kinder Egg, specially
> in games. Althought can be guessed through menus, the machine
> name could be informative.

A snapshot is more like a VMWare Appliance IMO
<http://www.vmware.com/appliances/>, it's just that with emulators your are
more likely to download stuff from the internet. I feel that it would be
better to allow users to configure a few machine images they can select
from on startup rather than the forest of options and apply on preferences
save type model we have now. I think the most confusing thing when loading
random snaps is when it changes your default config.

>> It probably would be nice to have some kind of notification when the
>> machine or its configuration changes on a snapshot load though (we do
>> that for joysticks at least).
>
> Preferably in a non intrusive way, bearing tour mode in mind. What kind
of
> message/action (about joysticks) are you thinking?

Joysticks are already done, when the snapshot being loaded has a different
joystick emulation setting that Fuse you get a prompt asking if you want to
change the config to match (i.e. I setup Fuse to emulate the Kempston
joystick as my USB joystick, I load a snap with cursor joystick configured
for use in game and Fuse asks me if I want to change my USB joystick
configuration to match, otherwise I may not have the correct configuration
to continue playing a snapshotted game).

So here I am thinking about the case where we load a snap with a different
machine than the one in our preferences, the preference is changed if I
have auto-save settings turned on and I was thinking that it would be nice
to explicitly be made aware that the configuration is being changed. But I
am now leaning back towards the thought of having explicit machine
configurations to choose from on startup being the better option. i.e. we
don't switch saved preferences based on loading a snap, we just consider
snaps to be self-contained serialised virtual machines and we have a little
UI for users to configure up some machines to fit their preferences/ship
with a few ready to go that are shown on startup. If we did this, I think
that knowing which machine is currently configured wouldn't repay the cost
in a more cluttered interface - but that is just my opinion!

With respect to the situation right now where we don't do any of that, I
can see some benefit in having the machine model information visible so I
am probably inclined to commit the patch unless anyone has any other
thoughts or objections.

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Comment By: Sergio Baldovi (sbaldovi)
Date: 2011-03-16 10:36

Message:
>I can see that some would like it (though I don't think I'd use it
myself),

Just wanted to launch an open discussion. I'd actually prefer a short
description like Spectaculator (e.g. +2A instead of Spectrum +2A). 

>it does raise the question of all the other peripherals and mass storage
etc. that can be part of the machine definition and which doesn't seem to
be present in very successful emulators (e.g. VMWare doesn't try to tell
you about the virtual machine config in the status bar)

Not exactly the same. In VMWare you know what machine is starting,
however, a snapshot load is like a Kinder Egg, specially in games.
Althought can be guessed through menus, the machine name could be
informative.

> It probably would be nice to have some kind of notification when the
machine or its configuration changes on a snapshot load though (we do that
for joysticks at least).

Preferably in a non intrusive way, bearing tour mode in mind. What kind of
message/action (about joysticks) are you thinking?

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Comment By: Fredrick Meunier (fredm)
Date: 2011-03-15 23:39

Message:
I can see that some would like it (though I don't think I'd use it myself),
it does raise the question of all the other peripherals and mass storage
etc. that can be part of the machine definition and which doesn't seem to
be present in very successful emulators (e.g. VMWare doesn't try to tell
you about the virtual machine config in the status bar). It probably would
be nice to have some kind of notification when the machine or its
configuration changes on a snapshot load though (we do that for joysticks
at least).

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You can respond by visiting: 
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=596650&aid=3208815&group_id=91293