Python/Qt Dosbox Frontend Devel Talk

[Pickle]

I put out a dosbox pacakge with a qt frontend which seemed to work ok. Later though i noticed my config was gettting blown away defeating the purpose. I never really found another simple cross platform frontend. Ive been hand modifying the conf directly which stinks.

So Ive been tinkering with qt and python and I have the basic mechanics down and everything looks plausible. So this thread is just a place to give feedback, give ideas on improvements and useful features. I intend for this to be a simple frontend that can adjust any and all settings relating to the dosbox conf files.

This works on the fact that the current dosbox can take multiple conf files as arguments using the later one to overwrite the previous's settings. So i see there being a high level common conf, and then specific tweak confs. Most the time i use the same conf, but tweak the cycles.

All confs will be located in one location <appdata?/confs

One file will contain entries describing all games/programs in ini format.

Each entry will have section name, group, base conf, and user conf.

The section name is what will show in the current gui list.

The group name will act a folder to organize games, like all the utlima games could be give an 'Ultima'  group name.

Base conf is a common conf with many default settings. This would be confs that would target a certain machine type or genre i.e ega, cga, vga

User conf is a specific conf that would only contain changes that game needs. For example maybe the game needs loadfix, or a fixed cycles.

The GUI will allow for creation/deletion/edit of the game entries.

The GUI will allow for modification of the conf and any setting inside

The APP will parse a default conf for options, making the APP dynamic against future dosbox releases.

The GUI will have a settings dialog

I dont intend to do anything with meta data or anything to catagorize the games or to show any game info like images. Just a simple list.

So there you go, I do have something started and no idea when i would be ready. But if you care to post some feedback.

 

[thatgui]

Excellent news, anything dosbox related is always welcome !

I do have a thought about "One file will contain entries describing all games/programs in ini format." though: would it be possible/feasable to split that up into files per game or at least per game group ? This way, sharing would be a lot easier.

Do you have plans regarding the keyboard - like custom mappers (or even a simple tool) ?

 

[Pickle]

thats an idea to think about, the ini's could be broken into multiple files based on the grouping. I like that, then like you mention packages could be put together, the ini file, confs, and mappers. The user would just need to copy the files to the write locations and have the game data in the right location and it would all work.

I was actually thinking that i didnt say anything about the mappers. I definaintaly want the option to select any mapper file for any game.

I could make the mapper selection higher level along side the choice of the base and user conf's. All the mappers could be in a mappers folder.

I could also leave the setting adjustable within the general conf edit gui.

For the actually mapping dosbox already has the internal mapper mode. I believe its possible to boot into this mode directly. Thats what i would support to begin with. I could but never really wanted to support a external mapping gui. But if it makes sense at some point then its possible.

Thanks for the post, some good ideas.

 

[thatgui]

altough I can't profit anymore from this, how things are going (I'm a quite "nosy" person") ?

 

[Pickle]

altough I can't profit anymore from this, how things are going (I'm a quite "nosy" person") ?

Yeah i read about your adventure with the milk, thats unforunate.

Ive progressed a little bit. Ive added the feature to use separate files to group entries. They are detected and show up in the list view, but there are some bugs with the navagtion.

 

[thatgui]

Ive progressed a little bit. Ive added the feature to use separate files to group entries. They are detected and show up in the list view, but there are some bugs with the navagtion.

Thanks for the "update".Speaking of navigation, what is your "route of march" regarding the UI, are you thinking in the "desktop" direction, with a traditional control and usage scheme (maybe because the Pandora is not the only target plattform, or it just suits your usage patterns better) or a you trying to adapt it more to the usage patterns that developed on the Pandora (like B-ZaR did with PNDManager) ?

 

[Pickle]

Ive progressed a little bit. Ive added the feature to use separate files to group entries. They are detected and show up in the list view, but there are some bugs with the navagtion.

Thanks for the "update".
Speaking of navigation, what is your "route of march" regarding the UI, are you thinking in the "desktop" direction, with a traditional control and usage scheme (maybe because the Pandora is not the only target plattform, or it just suits your usage patterns better) or a you trying to adapt it more to the usage patterns that developed on the Pandora (like B-ZaR did with PNDManager) ?

Well touchscreen is going to be the main interface this being a windows type gui. I havnt tried but I would think it would be possible to use the dpad to navigate the listview, although it might need a click to get focus.

 

[thatgui]

Well touchscreen is going to be the main interface this being a windows type gui. I havnt tried but I would think it would be possible to use the dpad to navigate the listview, although it might need a click to get focus.

Ok, that was quite unexpected, so I try to formulate a feature request :
Please try to make everything controllable by keyboard: which could just be as easy as having a sensible tab order for the controls and avoiding mouse only controls.

I know it sounds silly and I probably are in a minority here, but I always found using the touchscreen on the Pandora rather akward and developed the habit of doing everything I can with the keyboard, and if I get to the point where I definately need a mouse I use the nubs. As a last resort, if using the nubs gets too cumbersome I start using the touchscreen.

 

[TrashyMG]

I know it sounds silly and I probably are in a minority here, but I always found using the touchscreen on the Pandora rather akward and developed the habit of doing everything I can with the keyboard, and if I get to the point where I definately need a mouse I use the nubs. As a last resort, if using the nubs gets too cumbersome I start using the touchscreen.

Well if you are a minority, then I am as well.. I tend not to use the touchscreen much at all. even navigating the XFCE4 menus it's easier to hit the pandora button and use the D-pad and enter button.

 

[edgex004]

I tend not to use the touchscreen much at all. even navigating the XFCE4 menus it's easier to hit the pandora button and use the D-pad and enter button.

Same here. I use the touchscreen every so often, but it only becomes my primary method of control when using a program like mypaint.

 

[Pickle]

Im keeping it mind, but its not the most critical thing at the moment, I actually need to have the gui complete before i dig into controling it