3.112c

fixed: xml export shows a crc=0 for nodumps
fixed: www profile xml creator doesn't include xml dats
fixed: about window frame was wrong
misc: added dtd reference to xml header


Roman Scherzer

> 3.112c
>
> fixed: xml export shows a crc=0 for nodumps
> fixed: www profile xml creator doesn't include xml dats
> fixed: about window frame was wrong
> misc: added dtd reference to xml header
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>
Hi Roman,
any chance to see this sooner or later?
--------------------------------
of course the code to generate the old format is still in...it's simply a true/false switch....
time will tell if I add an option either visible or not. For this weekend, you won't see something like that ;)
----------------------------------
For people like me, maintaining various old datfiles, it would be of real help.
All the best


ciao
f205v

> For people like me, maintaining various old datfiles, it would be of real help.


Dats in -listinfo format will be still loaded fine (until I rewrite cmpro which will only allow XML dats). So you can keep and use old ones. Newly created ones (fixdats, export, dir2dat) will be XML. XML is easier to handle in these days anyway and provide automatic verification against a DTD.

Logiqx will soon convert all his dats (RC and CMPRO) to XML only and remove all old styled ones.

If other tools require -listinfo format, they should really update their parsers. There are some good dat utils out there....I can't understand when they don't support xml (which is THE standard for MAME for years).

So why do you really need old style dats? Which tools do you use to work with them?


Roman Scherzer

> > For people like me, maintaining various old datfiles, it would be of real
> help.
>
>
> Dats in -listinfo format will be still loaded fine (until I rewrite cmpro which
> will only allow XML dats). So you can keep and use old ones. Newly created ones
> (fixdats, export, dir2dat) will be XML. XML is easier to handle in these days
> anyway and provide automatic verification against a DTD.
>
> Logiqx will soon convert all his dats (RC and CMPRO) to XML only and remove all
> old styled ones.
>
> If other tools require -listinfo format, they should really update their
> parsers. There are some good dat utils out there....I can't understand when they
> don't support xml (which is THE standard for MAME for years).
>
> So why do you really need old style dats? Which tools do you use to work with
> them?
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>

some very usefull datutils are no longer maintained, and they can't use xml dats. possibility to save fixdats in old style would really be usefull for that as well. remember clrmame is used for 100's of other dats as well, not just Mame ;-)

> some very usefull datutils are no longer maintained

Name them and check if they can't be replaced with current ones.

>remember clrmame is used for 100's of other dats as well

xml *IS* the standard for dats. It's not that cmpro doesn't support old style dats, it only exports dats in the new format. Besides, it's not new, it's supported since years.

You can easily write a xslt template which converts it to the old style format.


Roman Scherzer

> > some very usefull datutils are no longer maintained
>
> Name them and check if they can't be replaced with current ones.
>
> >remember clrmame is used for 100's of other dats as well
>
> xml *IS* the standard for dats. It's not that cmpro doesn't support old style
> dats, it only exports dats in the new format. Besides, it's not new, it's
> supported since years.
>
> You can easily write a xslt template which converts it to the old style format.
>
>
> Roman Scherzer
>
Ok Roman, I see your point.
I do not agree with you, but I do understand your position, besides it's your program, you can do what you like with it.

Anyway, one of the most usefull dat-tool out there is called "ListTool".
It's not maintained since years, it does not even support SHA1 (it dates back to MD5), but it's so easy to use, and so effective in what it does that it's still in use today.

Another one is called "Dat Workshp Pro", it does something similar to "ListTool", it's modern and it's also maintained regularly. It will probably support xml in some future version. But it's not as easy as "ListTool", nor as immediate and effective.

Not only, but xml dats are more difficult to read with a text editor compared to old style dats.

I personally will NOT updated clrmame after version 3.111a, at least up to when there will be a toggle in clrmame to have old style dats, or up to when there will be a dat management tool supporting xml natively.

ciao
f205v

Dat Workshp Pro supports xml dats and will also update to the new DTD/xml header. I've just discussed this with the author.

As I said, it's easy to convert xml dats via xslt to the outdated format.

XML is much more readable (esp. when using syntax highlighting) than the old styled format.


Roman Scherzer