MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: MAME.exe no longer showing compile date?

> I've never mentioned stuff like RA or HyperSpin really.
> But actually said using mame.ini at least is good, I just don't get why it's no
> longer included by default/automatically.
>
> Of course I also think it's better if ultimately everything can be controlled via the
> new default UI/MEWUI. For me something like QMC2 is more time and trouble to get
> everything to be like I want to, I really don't see the point of it, if I wanted a
> Win UI, I'd chose MAMEUI or another UI build period, I'm confident most users would.
>
> Command line, I think it's useless to tell again how it's perceived by people with
> barely any computer skills. It's obvious none of you save maybe Haze realize how bad
> it is.
>
> But the reactions mostly, demonstrate what I'm saying about how user criticism and
> therefore requests are received by devs: almost every point gets dismissed,
> ridiculed.
>
> User experience, degree of useability IMHO should be measured with petty normal users
> in mind, humans as Haze says, without assuming too much of what they think/want and
> can do. When you produce a software or anything else that'll be used by millions,
> whose's skill level matters first ?
>
> [/rant]

I actually exclusively use the commandline, and can honestly say the project wouldn't be anywhere near what it is today if we'd moved away from that as the primary way of launching MAME, however, I also understand it's not for everybody.

What we need is actually a system that allows you to work in a GUI, but also shows you what the correct commandline syntax for what you're doing would be, so you can learn from it, the GUI also needs to allow you to enter commandline stuff if you want and react to it. They need to work hand in hand.

With something like MAME it is important to be able to get some grasp of what you're doing, and there are times when I struggle to know what the correct commandline is for something today, and as the complexity increases that will only get worse; showing me by letting me do it with a GUI but showing me what I could have done, so that next time I know what I could have entered instead etc. to save time.

Even things like the ingame console in FPS games back in the day (thinking Quake etc.) kinda got it right that while some things can be driven by a menu, other things are better suited to typing. That will always be the case, but if we can find a way they support each other seamlessly that would be a good place to be.