XRoar 0.31 released

[sixxie]

Maybe Ciaran could tell us what is the difference between these two parameters (-dos versus -dostype) keeping into account that adding a file like DDOS40.rom or DDOS11C.rom, at this moment, gives the same result with any of them.
pere

The real answer to that is both of those options are deprecated, because the way cartridges are handled has changed to be about more than just DOS - but I try to keep old options working "as expected" as much as possible.

Machines are configured by name with "-machine" and various other options configure aspects of that named machine config. Carts are the same, you select one to configure with "-cart" and then further options affect that named config.

A machine has a default cart ("-machine-cart"), which is used unless XRoar reckoned something on the command line should inhibit it (e.g., running a tape file). If that's not defined, XRoar tries to be clever and pick a DOS cart based on available ROMs; "-nodos" inhibits that behaviour for a machine (e.g., if you configured a 4K CoCo, it wouldn't make sense to automatically attach RSDOS).

You select a default machine to run with "-default-machine". But to add confusion (in the name of user friendliness and backwards compatibility), if you select a machine on the command line (as opposed to in the config file), that's assumed to be the one you want to run. Similarly, if you specifiy a cart to configure on the command line, it's assumed you want it connected.

The output of "--help" and "-config-print" should be informative - both should provide clues about what options are related to what through indent level (in recent releases!).

Thinking it through to write this out, it does occur to me that the cart selection shouldn't really be a part of the machine configuration - there should perhaps be some higher level way of grouping a machine choice with a cartridge choice (and other things, like which joysticks are used for what) and giving that grouping a name. What to call such a group? A "setup"? An "installation"? Any ideas?

BTW, if you always prefer that DragonDOS carts use "DDOS11C", you might try adding this option (maybe in xroar.conf): "-romlist dragondos=DDOS11C,@dragondos"

[pser1]

Helo Ciaran,
I have modified my bat file to use the -cart-rom parameter, this way:

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xroar -vo sdl -machine dragon64 -extbas d64rom1V31.rom -altbas d64rom2V31.rom -cart-rom ddos11c.rom -kbd-translate

and it doesn't start de disk system
Then I have renamed the DOS file to ddos40.rom, with this bat:

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copy ..\XRoar\DOS-ROMs\ddos11C.rom ddos40.rom
xroar -vo sdl -machine dragon64 -extbas d64rom1V31.rom -altbas d64rom2V31.rom -cart-rom ddos40.rom -kbd-translate

And it works without problems, so it seems that only a few filenames are accepted with the -cart-rom option
Is there any way to force the filename ddso11c.rom to be loaded from $C000 as intended?
pere

Edit:
The very first bat will work ok if you add the file ddos40.rom in the directory where xroar.exe is. This was indicated first by zephyr
Of course not the best solution ... I would use the second bat instead, for sure

[zephyr]

You have to use "-cart-rom" with "-machine-cart".

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xroar -vo sdl -machine dragon64 -extbas d64rom1V31.rom -altbas d64rom2V31.rom -machine-cart dragondos -cart-rom ddos11c.rom -kbd-translate

[pser1]

you are right zephyr, this way works perfect.
As Ciaran has said that -dos and -dostype are deprecated, I will modify all of my bats (to test different machines and DOS systems) with the method you are using.
thanks a lot
pere

[zephyr]

It looks like "-machine" may also be deprecated. Replaced by the "-machine-arch" option. The following batch file should emulate Dragon 64 hardware with a 6309E CPU and Steve Woolham's Enhanced BASIC ROMs v3.1.

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@echo off
xroar -vo sdl -machine-arch dragon64 -machine-cpu 6309 -extbas d64rom1V31.rom -altbas d64rom2V31.rom -machine-cart dragondos -cart-rom ddos11c.rom -kbd-translate -force-crc-match

[pser1]

wow!
I have gone obsolete in just a few weeks!
This is a very good advice, I will have to modify one more time my 'bat' files in order to have them without 'deprecated' parameters.
I changed dragondos for rsdos or delta where necessary, of course.
Thanks one more time, zephyr
pere

[sixxie]

"-machine" isn't deprecated, it's used to select a named machine configuration, or create a new one - usually in a config file, so you can just call up your preferred one by name. As noted above, if you select a config with "-machine" on the CLI, it also assumes that's the one you want to run (you'd need to use "-default-machine" in xroar.conf).

But if you're wanting your batch scripts to specify everything about a machine from scratch on the command line then I guess it's not really necessary.

Edit: it does seem like this is how most people (who have said anything about it!) want to use it - maybe this ability to configure machine and cartridge "profiles" is overkill? Leave it to some sort of higher level "configurator" to set up exactly what you want (or indeed batch files)...?

Further edit: this is starting to appeal now - ditch the built-ins, have a set of machine configuration files that XRoar knows how to find. Would remove a lot of configuration management cruft from the main binary. Ok, going to give this some thought

[zephyr]

I assumed that "-machine" was deprecated because I didn't see it listed as a command line option (even though it is there when you take the time to read the instructions carefully).

2.1 Machines

With no other options, XRoar searches the ROM path and determines which supported machine
has firmware ROM images are available. It tries in this order: Dragon 64, Dragon 32, Tandy
CoCo. This can be overridden with the -default-machine name option. XRoar has built-in
configurations for the following machines:

Name Description
‘dragon32’ Dragon 32 (PAL).
‘dragon64’ Dragon 64 (PAL).
‘dragon200e’ Dragon 200-E (PAL).
‘tano’ Tano Dragon (NTSC).
‘coco’ Tandy Colour Computer (PAL).
‘cocous’ Tandy Color Computer (NTSC).
‘mx1600’ Dynacom MX-1600 (PAL-M).

You can create new machine configurations or reconfigure existing ones. Select a machine
configuration with -machine name, and use the following options to modify it:

-machine-desc name
Description shown in -machine help.

-machine-arch arch
Base machine architecture. One of ‘dragon64’, ‘dragon32’ or ‘coco’.

-machine-cpu cpu
Fitted CPU. One of ‘6809’ or ‘6309’. Hitachi 6309 support is not as well tested.

-bas rom ROM image to use for Colour BASIC (CoCo only).

-extbas rom ROM image to use for Extended BASIC.

-altbas rom 64K-mode Extended BASIC for Dragon 64 & Dragon 200-E.

-nobas
-noextbas
-noaltbas
Indicate the corresponding ROM is not fitted in this machine.

-ext-charset rom
ROM image to use for external character generator.

-tv-type type
One of ‘pal’, ‘ntsc’ or ‘pal-m’. PAL-M support is not complete, and will instead
be treated the same as NTSC.

-vdg-type type
Indicate the VDG variant fitted. One of ‘6847’ or ‘6847t1’.

-ram kbytes
Amount of RAM fitted.

-machine-cart name
Default cartridge to attach. See Section 2.2 [Cartridges], page 6.

So, the batch file should actually be as follows.

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@echo off
xroar -vo sdl -machine dragon64 -machine-cpu 6309 -extbas d64rom1V31.rom -altbas d64rom2V31.rom -machine-cart dragondos -cart-rom ddos11c.rom -kbd-translate -force-crc-match

[pser1]

Hello Ciaran,
using the GTK allows the user to change of machine, but it seems mandatory to have all of the rom files in the same directory where xroar is installed.

In the manual you wrote:
The XROAR_ROM_PATH environment variable can also be used to specify the search path, but
this behaviour is deprecated and may be removed in a future version.

So, is there any other chance to make xroar searching the roms in a directory?
I have put all the GTK dlls in a directory and added this one to the %path% and this works well. Its cleaner by far than having a bunch of files in the same xroar root directory.
any advice would be greatly appreciated
pere

[pser1]

by the way, the "xroar-0.31-gtk-w32.exe" (the last I have) doesn't show ,in the machine window, the joystick options (right, keft, swap)
have I done something wrong?
thanks Ciaran
pere