Shift838 Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 (edited) Latest Version HERE I have been messing (no pun intended) around for over a year off and on with a new GUI Launcher for MESS. It's written in VB .NET for Windows of course. This application allows one to choose: the different slots for the TI/Geneve cards Cartridge port configuration Joystick Configuration Floppy Disk Config Hard Disk config Serial Bridge etc. automatically generate the command and launches mess based on your selected configuration. My plan for this thing is not only to be able to use it to launch, but eventually be able to have an all in one tool to create hard disk images, etc. I am having issues coming up with a name. I was thinking of maybe one of the below, of course I am open to suggestions. WAM GL (What? A Mess GUI Launcher) Ooey GUI MESS Launcher Any preference of what any of you think sounds better or even a suggestion? Images Updated : 10/10/2015 @ 11:25 p.m. CST Images are just an example of pulling data from the XML files, some selections are just a duplicate of what I have saved in the XML file. Edited February 8, 2016 by Cschneider 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 Ooey GUI MESS Launcher is pretty good. very clever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willsy Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 GumpTIon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 faTIGUIng MESS? (just kidding) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 TIGER - TI Graphical Emulator Runner Looking forward to trying out the end product. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted October 3, 2015 Share Posted October 3, 2015 QMC2? Sorry - just wondering why you think there is a need for another MESS launcher? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 QMC2? Sorry - just wondering why you think there is a need for another MESS launcher? Myself and many others have nothing but problems with QMC2. It constantly crashes. The issues i have had with it crashing is on both 32bit and 64bit windows systems. It just is not that stable for me and I want a MESS launcher that has all the utilities with it as well as the ability to map your serial port, which QMC2 does not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 Updated original post with screenshot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 I have been messing (no pun intended) around for over a year off and on with a new GUI Launcher for MESS. It's written in VB .NET for Windows of course. This application allows one to choose: the different slots for the TI/Geneve cards Cartridge port configuration Joystick Configuration Floppy Disk Config Hard Disk config Serial Bridge etc. automatically generate the command and launches mess based on your selected configuration. My plan for this thing is not only to be able to use it to launch, but eventually be able to have an all in one tool to create hard disk images, etc. I am having issues coming up with a name. I was thinking of maybe one of the below, of course I am open to suggestions. WAM GL (What? A Mess GUI Launcher) Ooey GUI MESS Launcher Any preference of what any of you think sounds better or even a suggestion? Wow this is great and beats the heck out of the normal one in Mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 QMC2? Sorry - just wondering why you think there is a need for another MESS launcher? QMC2 I never could get to work twice the same way. And for some reason started to never load the config I had saved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 QMC2? Sorry - just wondering why you think there is a need for another MESS launcher? No, I also think Chris's launcher makes a lot of sense, despite the availability of QMC2. Me, I'm only using QMC2 when someone reports a problem with it. Although there is a lot of work inside QMC2 and I do not want to doubt that in any way, it epicly fails to make MESS usage any simpler. It offers a graphical user interface to all MESS features, but by doing this, it does not hide the complexity, but it makes it even more prominent. As a Linux user, I am used to launch programs by a command line or by a script file, which actually provides all that I need. With QMC2 we get another layer between the user and MESS; in other words, you do not only have to learn to use MESS but also learn to use QMC2. A lot of the problems is caused by QMC2 trying again to be an interface for all systems on the list. It would be much better if we could tailor the interface to the common needs of a TI emulation user. Accordingly, I would consider QMC2 to be a good tool to explore a large set of different emulations, but a less recommendable one for everyday use. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted October 4, 2015 Share Posted October 4, 2015 No, I also think Chris's launcher makes a lot of sense, despite the availability of QMC2. Me, I'm only using QMC2 when someone reports a problem with it. Although there is a lot of work inside QMC2 and I do not want to doubt that in any way, it epicly fails to make MESS usage any simpler. It offers a graphical user interface to all MESS features, but by doing this, it does not hide the complexity, but it makes it even more prominent. As a Linux user, I am used to launch programs by a command line or by a script file, which actually provides all that I need. With QMC2 we get another layer between the user and MESS; in other words, you do not only have to learn to use MESS but also learn to use QMC2. A lot of the problems is caused by QMC2 trying again to be an interface for all systems on the list. It would be much better if we could tailor the interface to the common needs of a TI emulation user. Accordingly, I would consider QMC2 to be a good tool to explore a large set of different emulations, but a less recommendable one for everyday use. I have been using QMC2 for a couple of years and never had any problems. I strongly prefer this to the command line, but or course the interface could still be simpler and more focused on the TI. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 I have been using QMC2 for a couple of years and never had any problems. I strongly prefer this to the command line, but or course the interface could still be simpler and more focused on the TI. Yes it could be simpler and that is another reason I am doing this as well as gearing to the TI/Geneve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 If you are emulating a TI and a Geneve, are you able to launch one or the other configurations independently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 (edited) If you are emulating a TI and a Geneve, are you able to launch one or the other configurations independently? If I understand what you are asking, the answer is yes. You can launch multiple processes of MESS independent from each other. So you can run multiple configs at the same time for both TI and Geneve. Edited October 5, 2015 by Cschneider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 One other thought, could you also add our TI cousins (the Tomy Tutor or the TI990) to this launcher? They used our CPU family too. . .and if we can ever track down a copy of the GPL Assembler TI used, the 990 emulation could even be used to modify/recompile some of the TI GPL source code we have without having to adjust it to the later GPL Assemblers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 and if we can ever track down a copy of the GPL Assembler TI used, the 990 emulation could even be used to modify/recompile some of the TI GPL source code we have without having to adjust it to the later GPL Assemblers. Sorry to derail this thread temporarily, but could you provide some pointers to those GPL sources? I'd be interested in the GPL syntax used -- does it differ from the original GPL specification? If it's not too far out I might add it to xga99, for completeness' sake. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Back to the MESS launcher: I usually prefer the command line, but I also created a small GUI frontend for myself that let's me browse my disks and carts collection and run them with a single click. Maybe that would be a useful option for Ooey GUI as well. Not too happy about the "Windows only", though ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Back to the MESS launcher: I usually prefer the command line, but I also created a small GUI frontend for myself that let's me browse my disks and carts collection and run them with a single click. Maybe that would be a useful option for Ooey GUI as well. messgui.png Not too happy about the "Windows only", though ... Like your frontend, I use both Mac and Windozs, would like to try out your frontend, do you have a link or download site somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 Back to the MESS launcher: I usually prefer the command line, but I also created a small GUI frontend for myself that let's me browse my disks and carts collection and run them with a single click. Maybe that would be a useful option for Ooey GUI as well. messgui.png Not too happy about the "Windows only", though ... Ralph, nice (looks unix type). I have the same type of browse feature for utilizing a Windows File Dialog box chooser that pops up when you click on the folder icon next to the text box for cartridges, floppy disk images and hard disk images. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Not too happy about the "Windows only", though ... To get something not "Windows-only", you could use Java as I did with TIImageTool. On the other hand, I got the impression that there is some reservation against Java (which is not justified at all, in my view). Would it be an option for you to use the Qt library? This would allow you to build the GUI for all operating systems, since Qt is widely available. If I remember correctly, QMC2 uses the Qt library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 5, 2015 Author Share Posted October 5, 2015 i am not really versed in coding of Java so I chose .NET as it's my comfort zone for PC's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted October 5, 2015 Share Posted October 5, 2015 Maybe I misunderstood ralphb's comment ... sounded to me as if he commented his own GUI frontend with the words "Windows only". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 I will also be utilizing XML for configuration files. Gotta stay current. May even add some buttons for favorite system configs probably 3 or 4 if I can do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralphb Posted October 6, 2015 Share Posted October 6, 2015 Maybe I misunderstood ralphb's comment ... sounded to me as if he commented his own GUI frontend with the words "Windows only". Oops, you're right, but I was referring to Chris' launcher. My own launcher is using PyQt, i.e., a Python binding for Qt, which is cross-platform. It looks somewhat nicer than stock Java, although you can do amazing UIs in Java as well. @Chris: Sure, I can understand that, it's just a pity when our small community is fragmented even further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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