[freesci-develop] FreeSCI configuration

[Christoph Reichenbach]

Matt,

> Its a separate front end. Here is a screenshot. Dragging folders on the 
> application icon or on the application itself adds the game to the game 
> list. Users can select the video and sound server for the specific 
> game.
> If the game is already setup then dragging the folder on the 
> application launches the game immediately. Its really just a launch 
> platform.

Good approach.

> The more I check into supporting more features in the front end (by 
> using the config file settings) the more I really believe the loader 
> should be integrated.

I'm not sure if we can generalise the drag&drop to everyone's
satisfaction, but I agree that as much as possible of the
loader/configurator functionality should be integrated. I'd suggest
gradually migrating your features into the FreeSCI common stuff, but
only after Hugues' existing code has been merged.

> I wonder also if its not easier to convert the config file into an XML 
> format.

That depends on whose ease you're concerned about ;-)
It's fairly easy to understand our config format with a mere lexer (->
src/config.l)-- perhaps not quite as easy as it would be with an XML
file, but the format we're using has the advantage of being reasonably
convenient for people to edit by hand.
  Note that at least I personally am not conceptionally against a
change in the configuration file format, as long as a real benefit
will come out of that.

  Anyway, the real issue you attempt to address with that seems to be
round-trip configuration (de)serialisation, i.e. we need to add
facilities to FreeSCI to serialise the configuration setup, and also
to manipulate it (for this to serve any purpose).

  Since you've already spent some thought on that (unlike me), do you
have any suggestions as to the architecture or API that such a
round-trip configuration subsystem should provide?

> This front end will work for now but I would rather see an integrated 
> one as final version.
> Once the game loader would be integrated a very simple wrapper could be 
> used to just launch freesci with the correct video driver/server.

The correct video/audio setup should be autodetectable, but your
drag&drop approach seems like a very nice feature that should become
part of FreeSCI one way or another.


-- Christoph