06030: Add XML attribute to distinguish MAME titles from MESS systems

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
06030	Misc.	Feature	Have not tried	Sep 10, 2015, 15:20	Sep 14, 2015, 17:51

Tester	mbarnes	View Status	Public	Platform	MAME (Self-compiled)
Assigned To		Resolution	Won't fix	OS	Linux
Status [?]	Closed			Driver
Version	0.165	Fixed in Version		Build
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	06030: Add XML attribute to distinguish MAME titles from MESS systems
Description	Since MAME and MESS were combined, some Linux distributions have retired their MESS package and are now shipping a single binary for both MAME and MESS. Consequently the XML output from -listxml contains entries for both arcade machines and home computer/console machines, with no clear way (AFAICS) to distinguish between them. This makes life more difficult for authors like myself of front-ends that specifically target arcade games, because now unless the MAME binary is built with SUBTARGET=arcade, my front-end mixes home computers and consoles into what's supposed to be a list of arcade game titles. Can the XML definition be tweaked to provide something for front-ends to filter on? I don't much care how this is done, but a couple possibilities are: * Add a machine type attribute. e.g. <!ATTLIST machine type (arcade\|computer\|console) "arcade"> * Just add a flag for arcade games. e.g. <!ATTLIST machine isarcade (yes\|no) "yes">
Steps To Reproduce
Additional Information
Github Commit

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Regression Version
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No.12013 NekoEd Senior Tester Sep 10, 2015, 16:42	Marking as Direction Needed to bring it to developer attention since this is a feature request.
No.12014 Tafoid Administrator Sep 11, 2015, 03:04	There is not much to discuss, really. This movement to unify and merge the source code between MAME and MESS has been slowly happening for years now.. All emulations are at the core "machines" and it doesn't matter if they are arcade games, calculators, computers, chessboards, handheld games, consoles, printers or anything else that is emulated thus far. MESS specific folders and macros (as well as the ability to build the old mess target) will very likely be taken out of the official source tree and, again likely, very soon.. Notice that official binaries only exist for MAME now - this isn't a mistake. All is not lost - there are people who spend their time creating and updating various .ini files which front-end can use to categorize set names by these targets/machine types you suggest Front-Ends that want use these are certainly welcome to apply these to their game list output if they so choose. This is probably not what you want to hear, but it is the path being chosen at this time.
No.12016 mbarnes Tester Sep 11, 2015, 20:39	Thanks for the quick response. I can see your point of view as well. Do you know of any such .ini files that classify machine types? At the moment I've little choice but to hard-code a black list of machine names in my front-end which is bound to be continually out of date.
No.12018 Stiletto Developer Sep 12, 2015, 00:52	CiroConsentino got it going in his frontend, Emu Loader, back in June: http://www.mameworld.info/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=340777 He's been able to accomplish it with various files generated by AntoPISA at http://www.progettosnaps.net . It looks like mainly what he's using is category .ini for MESS: (http://www.progettosnaps.net/MESS/pS_MESS_category.zip Keep in mind, if AntoPISA stops updating it (not terribly likely since he's been working on various files and collections since 2008 sometime) then you're SOL and will need to research a suitable replacement.
No.12019 Tafoid Administrator Sep 12, 2015, 00:54	http://www.progettosnaps.net/renameset/ That seems to be the most updated one - look for "catver.ini for MAME" link inside that download is the 'catver_full.ini" file which should list all setnames and give classifications for each one.
No.12020 mbarnes Tester Sep 12, 2015, 16:02	Thanks for the pointers, that helps a lot!
No.12024 NekoEd Senior Tester Sep 14, 2015, 17:51	Looks like this one is done. Closing out.