Disk-swapping improvement (WinUAE)

[Maren]

Here's the deal. Most of the software I know that's several disks image big has been renamed to show the actual number of the disk at the end of the name, e.g. a 3-disk demo called "foo" would consist of "foo-1.adf, foo-2.adf and foo-3.adf". Others may go "foo.adf, foo-2.adf and foo-3.adf" completely skipping "1" for the first disk, then we have the roman numeral disks "foo-I.adf, foo-II.adf, foo-III.adf" and finally the the letter disks "foo-A.adf, foo-B.adf, foo-C.adf"

Basically I'd love to see is certain functionality allowing WinUAE to automatically swap disks (end+F keys) basing it's choice on said last number.

How could this be done? if "foo-1.adf" is in the drive, just make WinUAE try "foo-2.adf". If "foo-2.adf" is in the drive, then make WinUAE try "foo-3.adf" and so on.

Should the next disk not be available, just do what WinUAE does right now when you only have one disk in the Disk Swapper and press end+F key: prompt the user to the disk selection box.


Regards

[Toni Wilen]

It won't be that easy if you have multiple versions (with slightly different naming) in same directory or files inside archives.

[Maren]

Sorry but what do you mean?

[Toni Wilen]

I only mean that finding possibly correct image won't be as easy it it seems

Idea is good and I'd like to implement it but there can be issues..

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I only mean that finding possibly correct image won't be as easy it it seems

Idea is good and I'd like to implement it but there can be issues..

Ah! I get it! but I didn't mean to turn WinUAE into a sort of disk image search tool. This is what I had in mind:

1. You insert "foo-1.adf" and start emulation.

2. When the application asks you to insert "foo-2.adf", you press end+F key and WinUAE simply replaces the line "foo-1.adf { C:\Program Files\WinUAE\Demos\ }" with "foo-2.adf { C:\Program Files\WinUAE\Demos\ }" without searching for anything whatsoever. Just have it attempt load the disk whether it exists or not. It's replacing the last number/letter, no more, no less

[Toni Wilen]

That is not good enough solution for me. WinUAE needs at least check if the file exists before suggesting it

[Maren]

Shouldn't I be the one getting picky here?

Anyways, thanks for considering the suggestion

[BippyM]

Some ask for the previous disk too!!!

It'd need 2 combinations.. previous disk, next disk etc.. Then there are those that start with disk 1, ask for disk 3, then disk 5, then disk 2 etc..

[cosmicfrog]

arn`t naming conventions created just for this kind of thing, thinking of tosec
if only it was that simple

[Maren]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

That is not good enough solution for me. WinUAE needs at least check if the file exists before suggesting it

Ok, I spent a few hours trying to come up with a logical explanation for your approach, but I failed miserably

Why perform this check? I mean, if WinUAE attempts to load the file but it can't be found, then just prompt the user to the disk selection box and let them choose it manually (if replacing the number didn't do it, then the disk most likely doesn't exist anyways)

You see, successfully "checking" for a disk would imply "searching" the folder or reading it off a file containing a sort of list for the disks available in the folder (and that's assuming the list is actually up to date) yet I still can't see why this would be of any use given that WinUAE wouldn't be able to do anything about a missing file to begin with.

Regards.

[Toni Wilen]

I was thinking of shortcuts for "next disk" and "previous disk". Press shortcut and winuae checks current disk name, guesses name of next disk and attempts to find it, if found, insert it and continue normally (without any dialogs). If not, do more guesses and if still not found, open dialog.

I think this is better way to do it

[Maren]

Oh well, that changes the perspective

[Djay]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

I was thinking of shortcuts for "next disk" and "previous disk". Press shortcut and winuae checks current disk name, guesses name of next disk and attempts to find it, if found, insert it and continue normally (without any dialogs). If not, do more guesses and if still not found, open dialog.

I think this is better way to do it

that sounds the most efficient way

[andreas]

Originally Posted by bippym

Some ask for the previous disk too!!!

It'd need 2 combinations.. previous disk, next disk etc.. Then there are those that start with disk 1, ask for disk 3, then disk 5, then disk 2 etc..

Heheh.
Street Fighter II (ECS) comes to mind...ah the memories, me, the A500, SFII and one drive...

[Steve]

Hmmm. Interesting. lol. I have had an idea for this which may be a better solution. How about enabling this "feature" when the user loads a zip archive containing all the disk images. When a disk is required WinUAE automatically tries each disk in the archive till one is accepted.

[Toni Wilen]

Automatically checking if disk is accepted is impossible (lets not restrict this to trackdisk.device based programs..). The end.

"Previous" is not 100% needed, "next" of course wraps around, just keep clicking

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae.zip updated, quick multidisk program disk swapping implemented. As usual, I misused old GUI elements.. Right click on "Select image file"-button to open "favorite menu", detected disks will be added on top of the menu if currently inserted image looks like it has multiple disks.

Following disk naming conventions supported:

"*(disk x*", "*diskx*", "*_x.*", "*-x.*", "*_a.*", "*-a*", "*lowercaseA.*", "*_?x.*" (x = number 1 to 9, a = character a/A-z/Z, ? any character, * = anything)

"Next disk image in DFx:" input events added (no previous disk yet) EDIT: previous now implemented.

I hope this is something that was requested

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

"Next disk image in DFx:" input events added (no previous disk yet) EDIT: previous now implemented.

Very useful feature Will have a look later Thanks for the suggestion Maren and the implementation Toni.

[Maren]

Looking good but before I say anything:

1. What's the shortcut for swapping disks?

2. Is it supposed to work with .dms images? can't get them to load like .adf's and .ipf's

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Maren

1. What's the shortcut for swapping disks?

You can assign them via the input panel. 'Next disk image in DFx' and 'Previous disk image in DFx'.