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Debugger mashed.

Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 1:50 am
by e5frog
I noticed, when upgrading from a 0.1xx-version to 0.231 that the debugger, when running channelf, is missing registers in the list to the right.

R16-R63 are gone from the list which makes things harder if you want to look for bugs, you'd just open debugger and scroll down the list.
They have now been censored from the main debugger view and you have to open a memory window...

So previously: tap a button, scroll list

Now (since some versions back):
debugger button, Ctrl+M, mouse, click selection table, select register space memory... then calculate what the register is in Octal (as it's always addressed in octal in the code) or decimal as is used in all the old code since 20 years back, then in the evenly spaced data (without an x-axle marker, chunk size doesn't help me much), count by stepping one hex number at the time pointing with the mouse pointer

It's a little bit more work, a little bit of time but a lot of times that could be spent on other things.
It would be highly useful to have the list of the registers (R16-R63) where they were before, with decimal numbering as before - or preferably - octal which would be R20-R77, I mean R O'20' - R O'77' since that's what you almost always use in the code.
Likewise the "IS" register would be extremely handy to show octal numbers for the same reason, because when needed a manual conversion to and from hex is often necessary to translate between the code (octal) and the debugger view (hex). It also messes things up if you want to set ISAR to O'76' by using "IS = 76" the IS register is set to 36 (hex, as registers are shown in hex) - which is logical in its own way.

Another matter is the new use of H'xxxx' in the debugger instead of $xxxx - just because they used that in a 50 year old book. Lean back on the 20 years that $ was used in MESS/MAME instead - and nobody had a problem with it. In my opinion it looks messier to read and it's not an improvement in any way.
Maybe, as there are "Options" - an option to use $xxxx instead of H'xxxx'. Don't know if that method is used for all systems?


(Yes, I'm one of those 1-5 guys that program for Channel F)

Re: Debugger mashed.

Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 6:39 pm
by Stiletto
Hi there.

Looks like you're getting answers at bannister.org so I guess we can leave them to it! (them == us typically anyways...)
https://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads ... Post119257

Re: Debugger mashed.

Posted: Fri May 28, 2021 8:40 pm
by e5frog
Yup, there's a discussion at least, not sure if anyone can do anything about it or if it was the right place to ask.

I wrote about the same thing three months ago, help to self help is offered, would probably be great if one were programming and compiling stuff more often than once a year or so. ;-)
Don't think I ever figured out how to add the second version of sound I discussed in 2009.
It's a non-popular videogame system, there's a handfull of developers, I'm guessing I'm the only one that thinks I can have changes made to MAME/MESS.

Would like to have changes stuck in the official release, not having to change each version and compile it myself. Last time I did so (in 2009) it tried to open an internet connection - so something went wrong somewhere.

It's too bad changes are made that pulls away the carpet from under the feet of developers.

So, shall I keep out of here, is bannister the easier way to get changes done?

Re: Debugger mashed.

Posted: Sun May 30, 2021 1:13 am
by Stiletto
e5frog wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 8:40 pm Yup, there's a discussion at least, not sure if anyone can do anything about it or if it was the right place to ask.

I wrote about the same thing three months ago, help to self help is offered, would probably be great if one were programming and compiling stuff more often than once a year or so. ;-)
Don't think I ever figured out how to add the second version of sound I discussed in 2009.
It's a non-popular videogame system, there's a handfull of developers, I'm guessing I'm the only one that thinks I can have changes made to MAME/MESS.

Would like to have changes stuck in the official release, not having to change each version and compile it myself. Last time I did so (in 2009) it tried to open an internet connection - so something went wrong somewhere.

It's too bad changes are made that pulls away the carpet from under the feet of developers.

So, shall I keep out of here, is bannister the easier way to get changes done?
I would suggest to "have patience and cool stuff will happen" - looks like you have some support over at bannister.org, but reverting back isn't going to be happening immediately, it will probably happen. Sorry you were caught out by this unfortunate surprise, but it seems as though there had been some good intentions behind the changes.

Bannister.org tends to have more developer traffic in general. We've -tried- here, but it hasn't been all that successful so far.