Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

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CunningFellow
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Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by CunningFellow »

If we could hypothetically save 1/2 a kilobyte from the bootloader from further optimization and other magic. What extra features would people like to see?

I had been toying with the idea of a 32x32 pixel animated icon for each uze file to be played when the game is selected in the menu.

However there is currently a trending discussion about the Uze format and writing to the SD card. So a feature in the bootloder were you could safely write to sectors of SD might be a good addition. You have to specify a file name and a sector to write, and the write function will not let you write outside the bounds of that file name (or if a UZE file outside the specified user data area).

Any other features people have been longing for in the bootloader?
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Artcfox
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by Artcfox »

Would a bootloader routine to extend the size of a file (with fragmentation support) fit in 500 bytes?
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Artcfox
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by Artcfox »

Just so it is out there as an idea, why not use the 1/2 KB for a bootloader (and/or bootlib) extension that can create a new blank file of X (contiguous?) sectors on the SD card, returning an sds structure pointing to the start of this file, or an error if it was unable to create the file.

Then if a game needs to create a file that doesn't already exist on the SD card (say for save data, or for a level editor), it can call this FS_Create_File() routine and then safely write to the file using the normal FS_Write_Sector, FS_Next_Sector routines.

I think this might be more useful for games than having icon support in the bootloader.
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L4rry
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by L4rry »

A tiled thumbnail representation of the game listing would be nice. That way you can discern the nature of a game by a glance without having to scroll to it. It also adds the ability to move your selection cursor left and right in addition to up and down. That should make locating your game quicker too.

It would be nice to have a feature to reset the eeprom state. Either globally or per game or both. Right now that has to be built per game.
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Jubatian
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by Jubatian »

L4rry wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:55 amIt would be nice to have a feature to reset the eeprom state. Either globally or per game or both. Right now that has to be built per game.
This tool exists: http://uzebox.org/wiki/Emuze . It might be a little complicated to use, though, probably it would be nice if it was improved or replaced to become some game manager (which could even boot a game using the new bootloader's boot request feature). Related it might be nice if the UZE file header got a field indicating the EEPROM ID it uses, so even without the knowledge of the game, a program could pair EEPROM data with UZE files.

It wouldn't replace the bootloader though, such ideas popped up already, but the problem is, you double the wear on the Flash. The bootloader is 4 kilobytes, it can only have what fits within that. Someone could try to invent some new GUI for it, though, however I think the new one works sufficiently well, and I wouldn't touch it (this is not an opinion against anyone preferring to pursue such a goal, rather the management of my own capabilities: I wish to do other things since I think the new bootloader can serve its purpose okay).

(EDIT: Misspelling corected on "opinion" above, I accidentally spelled it "option")
Last edited by Jubatian on Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
CunningFellow
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by CunningFellow »

L4rry wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 7:55 am A tiled thumbnail representation of the game listing would be nice. That way you can discern the nature of a game by a glance without having to scroll to it. It also adds the ability to move your selection cursor left and right in addition to up and down. That should make locating your game quicker too.
My proposal was to have the icon/animation show when a game was highlighted in the list. That is - only one icon/animation on the screen at once.

The icons would have to be shown on screen as RAMTiles. There is not enough RAM to show an icon for many games on the screen at once.
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L4rry
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Re: Extra Feature Wishlist for Bootloader

Post by L4rry »

CunningFellow wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:04 am The icons would have to be shown on screen as RAMTiles.
Ah, I did not realize that. Thanks for the clarification. Still stoked about animated icons though :)
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