3.6.2

This Page is closed - move over to 3.7.1

Things we want to do for the 3.6.2 release:

• put a version number into the config file, so we can warn when an old config file is being used (fixed in trunk)

• Remove support for jpeg screenshots (and the dependency on libjpeg(turbo)) (fixed in trunk)

• Remove the -kernalrev option from the emulators that use it: use proper ROMs for different revisions and remove the checksumming/patching of ROM files. (fixed in trunk)

• Fix C128 cartridge system
  • snapshots are not supported yet
  • cartridges that work in C64 _and_ C128 mode are not supported yet
  • comal80 does not work correctly

• it is not possible to reset hotkeys to default (via UI) (fixed in trunk)
  • -default on cmdline should skip loading the custom hotkey file (fixed in trunk)
  • -default on cmdline should skip loading system files such as kernal from ~/.local/share/vice/$EMU/.
  • "reset settings to defaults" should also reset the hotkeys to defaults (fixed in trunk)

• There are a bunch of resources that have different names in SDL or GTK3 UIs, or which are specific to one of them. We should name those that do the same thing the same, and - as far as possible - get rid of the specific ones (by implementing the same feature in the other UI)
  • the same applies to the related commandline options, of course
  • NOTE: <CHIP>xyz resources should be registered in video-resources.c and the related variables go into the video_render_config_s struct (unless they fit into the video_resources_s struct)

GTK3

(FullscreenEnable                   should use <CHIP>Fullscreen instead (per video chip))
    Implemented in trunk: FullscreenEnable has been removed (it controlled whether to enable fullscreen on boot) and
    <CHIP>Fullscreen resources have been added as well as enabling [-+]<CHIP>full command line options for the Gtk3 UI.

KeepAspectRatio, TrueAspectRatio    rework into one resource <CHIP>AspectMode
                                     (0: off, 1: custom 2: true)  like in SDL
                                    
GTKFilter                           rename to "<CHIP>GLFilter"

<CHIP>AspectRatio                   to be implemented, should be (used with "custom" mode, see above)

JoyMapFile, JoyThreshold, JoyFuzz   use these when implementing the joystick mapping stuff

<CHIP>ShowStatusbar                 [implemented], show the statusbar if enabled
<CHIP>FlipX                         to be implemented
<CHIP>FlipY                         to be implemented

the following don't exist in SDL for good reasons, but naming is OK:

AutostartOnDoubleclick, PauseOnSettings, Window0Xpos, Window0Ypos, KeepMonitorOpen, MonitorXPos, MonitorYPos, MonitorWidth, MonitorHeight, MonitorFont, MonitorFG, MonitorBG, FullscreenDecorations

SDL

AspectRatio                    rename to <CHIP>AspectRatio
SDLGLAspectMode                rename to <CHIP>AspectMode
SDLGLFlipX                     rename to <CHIP>FlipX
SDLGLFlipY                     rename to <CHIP>FlipY
SDLGLFilter                    rename to <CHIP>GLFilter
SDLStatusbar                   rename to <CHIP>ShowStatusbar

JoyMapFile, JoyThreshold, JoyFuzz, <CHIP>Fullscreen 

the following don't exist in GTK3 for good reasons:

MenuKey<XYZ>, JoyMenuControl, <CHIP>FullscreenMode, SDLBitdepth, SDL2Renderer, DualWindow
SDLCustomWidth                 rename to "<CHIP>FullscreenCustomWidth"
SDLCustomHeight                rename to "<CHIP>FullscreenCustomHeight"

• Add some simple checksum algorithm to common code (CRC32 is probably fine) - right now eg the kernal loading uses simple additive checksum, which is really bad :)

• move remaining content from https://vice-emu.pokefinder.org/index.php/VICEKB into vice.texi fixed in trunk

• DTV should use different flash images for PAL, NTSC, Hummer

Joystick

The joystick system needs to be modified/extended to properly support custom button mappings.

• Change the resources "JoyDevice{N}" to use strings with device identifiers instead of an index of the predefined and connected devices. So for example a Logitech F710 controller would be "001:006:046d:c21f" (usb-bus 1, device-no 6, vendor-Id 046d, product-Id c21f). We'll need archdep code to translate the strings into something the underlying arch driver can use, so at least handlers for Windows, MacOS, Linux and the various BSDs.
• Provide a joymap file per device identifier that can be loaded/edited/deleted, perhaps auto-load when JoyDevice{N} contains such an identifier.
• Make the joymap files use (UI) action identifiers instead of the "menu paths" SDL does.
• Make the joymap files human-readable by not doing what SDL does: for example: don't use 0-3 for input type, use ["axis", "button", "hat", "ball"], don't use 0-6 for the 'action' row, use "none" (or leave it out)", "joystick", "keyboard", "ui-action, "pot".
• Dialogs need to written to handle all of this.

SDL UI

• the SDL "menu actions" should use fixed numeric IDs for the mapping to keys/joystick instead of "menu pathes" which break when the menu is rearranged

• SDL1/2 joystick mapping improvements
  • Add 'clear all mappings' to the joystick mapping menus (it's annoying to have to unmap one by one) (Added in trunk)
  • Make the 'extra joystick options' menu show what they are already mapped to
  • Add menu joystick actions mapping support to the 'extra joystick options' menu

GTK UI

• VSID improvements:
  • Playlist fixes:
    • Allow removing items from the playlist. (Fixed in trunk)
    • Allow loading and saving of playlists. (Fixed in trunk)
    • Skip to the next SID in the playlist after all tunes in the SID have played. (Fixed in trunk)
  • Hotkeys support, also for the controls and selecting items in the playlist:
    • Support for hotkeys/UI-actions has been added but handlers for the various actions need to be implemented and registered on boot. Registering VSID-specific actions should also remove the various warnings from Gtk/GLib and from VICE (unknown resources). (Fixed in trunk)

• Try to fix keymaps on Windows with Gtk using gdk_event_get_scancode.

On Windows we can't get, for example, GDK_KEY_KP_Home, we always get GDK_KEY_Home. Using certain bits in the scancode, we might be able to translate the keypad Home to its expected value (GDK_KEY_KP_Home, as we use it on Unix). If we could at least get the keypad fixed, we'd improve our keymaps a lot. See this post for more information. (fixed in trunk)

macOS testing WIP (fixed in trunk)

• GTK: a mechanism must be made that makes it possible to "call" any "menu action" (actions that can be assigned to hotkeys) (fixed in trunk)
  • when that is done, joystick buttons can be mapped to menu actions
  • an UI is needed for all that

• GTK: Rework some of the settings dialogs:
  • Turn the drive type selection into a combo box to save space. (fixed in trunk)
  • Try to make the parallel cable settings take less space (perhaps move the labels to the left side of the combo boxes and remove bold?) (fixed in trunk)

• add feature that allows to hide (only) the statusbar (use <CHIP>ShowStatusbar resource)

Added in trunk, with command line options -<CHIP>showstatusbar and +<CHIP>showstatusbar. Needs more work to properly handle the window resizing when toggling the visibility of the status bar.

• add missing $VICERES comments in the UI files, so ./gtk3-resources.py list-missing keeps working

• x128: Rework "Settings" => "Display" => "CRT": the current page is too high, use a GtkStack + GtkStackSwitcher.

• Remove setting function pointers in ${EMU}ui.c files for widgets, use the various ${EMU}-stubs.c files to provide stubs for the linker. (Fixed in trunk)

• Status bar drive popup menu: check if there are hotkeys defined for "Attach/Detach #[unit]:[drive]" and if so, add accelerator label(s) to the item(s). (Fixed in trunk)

buildsystem

• README is currently updated from the same rule that generates infocontrib.h, this should be done in a different way
• The VICE version and release date is not automatically updated everywhere yet
  • The top line of README
  • In the second paragraph of the README ("This is version 3.6 of VICE")

• there are some more problems in the buildystem:
  • according to src/arch/Makefile.am it looks like the "mingw32-pcap" dir is never used right now, check and fix this :) (fixed in trunk)
    • a proper configure check that defines HAVE_PCAP must be added, some ifdefs added at least to the windows rawnetarch_win32.c , and compiling all UIs tested with it (configure checks are in trunk and work)
  • in some makefiles it checks for USE_SDLUI and there is no check for USE_SDL2UI, that means eg bindist might be broken after configuring for SDL2 (fixed in trunk: USE_SDLUI has changed from meaning any SDL version to SDL 1.2, while USE_SDL2UI means SDL 2.x. Additionally USE_HEADLESSUI is now specifically checked for and no longer randomly lobbed in with GTK3 or SDL in else branches.
  • make bindist is currently broken for USE_HEADLESSUI. (fixed only for Windows/msys2)

• Too many files are installed in $PREFIX/share/doc/vice when doing make install (example from Linux):

CIA-README.txt
coding-guidelines.txt
Documentation-Howto.txt
Doxygen-Howto.txt
FreeBSD-GTK3-Howto.txt
GTK3-cross-build-setup.md
GTK3-debian-frankenvice.md
GTK3-Fedora-cross-build-setup.md
iec-bus.txt
Linux-GTK3-Howto.txt
macOS-Distribution-Howto.txt
macOS-Howto.txt
macOS-Xcode-Howto.txt
NetBSD-GTK3-Howto.txt
NetBSD-howto.txt
OpenBSD-GTK3-Howto.txt
Readme-SDL2.txt
Readme-SDL.txt
Release-Howto.txt
SDL-Howto.txt
vice.texi
Windows-MinGW-GTK3-Howto.txt

Perhaps something to look at after the xmas release.

• cpu history should be enabled by default, optionally disabled (fixed in trunk)
• Make sure the released binaries (Windows and macOS) use the same configuration (fixed in trunk)

github actions

• The github "snapshot" action should also build a release tarball so we can see if that actually works, and it needs to check if a gtk3ui configure generated tarball can compile sdl2 and vice versa (fixed in trunk: A workflow 'Weekly Check Dist' has been added that creates tarballs configured for headless, sdl2 and gtk3, and then uses those to configure for headless, sdl2 and gtk3 and does a make && make install. This job runs every week at Monday 06:00 UTC and reports any failures on #vice-dev)
• It would also be nice if the github action builds proper debian/ubuntu packages

Added in trunk for development releases: a .deb is generated for headless, sdl2 and gtk3 (both amd64), with non-stripped binaries. Still TODO is adding FFMPEG to the builds, and building point release packages with stripped binaries.

• It should also test if "make install" works (at least if it doesn't produce an error) (fixed in trunk: The 'Weekly Check Dist' workflow checks make install for headless, sdl2 and gtk3)

• add checkstyle.sh (tabs and whitespace) to the GHA (some small scripts added in trunk)

cleanup

• archdep cleanup
  • there are still various bits of archdep things dangling around in common code (and some newly added *sigh*) - use ./src/findhacks.sh archdep to find such code - a lot of this (if not all) should live in arch/shared
    • remaining cases should always come with a comment telling why there is archdep stuff and why it has to be in common code
  • ANDROID_COMPILE (the whole Android stuff in the tree) can likely be removed (waiting for reply from the C64.emu guy) (fixed in trunk)
  • various things from "lib.c" and "ioutil.c" should really live in arch/shared (fixed in trunk)
  • the functions in src/arch/macOS-util.c should be renamed to archdep_... instead of vice_macos..., empty functions created for non macos, header renamed to archdep_... , and then called unconditionally from common code
  • rawnetarch.h should probably also live in src/arch/shared (fixed in trunk)
  • the code in joystickdrv is used exclusively by the GTK3 port and should be moved into arch/gtk (fixed in trunk)
  • currently we have src/archapi.h AND src/<arch>/archdep.h, both of which contain prototypes for stuff that also has headers in src/arch/shared. this needs to be cleaned up so ideally we have exactly one header, which includes the headers from src/arch/shared (fixed in trunk)
  • src/arch/mingw32-pcap should probably live in src/lib (headers for 3rd party lib, this isnt really archdep code) (fixed in trunk) was removed, lib+headers are in msys2
  • AMIGA related stuff can be removed unless someone steps up real soon (fixed in trunk)
  • some directories contain arch specific "driver" stuff, which should live in src/arch/shared: hwsiddrv, mididrv, socketdrv, sounddrv, iodrv. (fixed in trunk)
  • src/systemheaderoverride should be moved into src/arch and then a note should be added to coding-guidelines.txt which explains what this folder is for (fixed in trunk)
  • names used for defines used in makefiles and config.h should be unified, eg we have HEADLESS_COMPILE in makefiles and USE_HEADLESSUI in config.h - it should only use USE_HEADLESSUI for both (fixed in trunk)
  • in the source only one common define should be used, eg WIN32_COMPILE in favour of _WIN32. If it really means "compile for windows" and not "compile for 32bit windows", use WINDOWS_COMPILE instead (fixed in trunk: had to add WIN64_COMPILE for 64-bit Windows check)
  • Remove support for 'classic' BeOS, only support Haiku.

Change the make bindist method for Haiku into make install.

• compiler depended ifdefs cleanup
  • use ./src/findhacks.sh ccarchdep to find such code, most things should be removed
    • remaining cases should always come with a comment telling why there has to be compiler specific stuff
  • the remaining _MSC_VER can likely be removed (waiting for reply from Carlo Bramini) (fixed in trunk)

• debug and log messages cleanup: We have a lot of noise on the terminal, it might be a good idea to clean that up.
  • use ./src/findhacks.sh printf to find printf calls that need to turned into log_debug calls (log_debug adds a newline, keep that in mind to avoid lots of empty lines in the log when changing printf to log_debug!).
  • decide if we really need that message in the log, perhaps it can be surrounded with #ifdef DEBUG / #endif so the messages are only shown when compiling with --enable-debug?
  • also check disabled (commented-out) printf/log_debug calls, will we ever need them again?

• configure.ac
  • Go through all the options and check if they should be renamed or removed:
    • Change --enable-external-ffmpeg to --enable-ffmpeg, we only have one method of linking against ffmpeg left. (fixed in trunk)
    • Change --enable-native-gtk3ui to --enable-gtk3ui. (fixed in trunk)
    • Change --enable-sdlui2 to --enable-sdl2ui. (fixed in trunk, also changed --enable-sdlui to --enable-sdl1ui)
    • Disable CatWeasel, SSI2001 and ParSID support by default. (fixed in trunk)
  • !! Properly update the build instructions with the above changes and put these changes in the release notes.

• split vice.texi into smaller files

• split mouse.c into one file per mouse type (fixed in trunk)

• rename all ROM files. a good naming scheme would be as in kernal-901227-01.bin (C128, C64, C64DTV, CBM-II, DRIVES, PET, PLUS4, PRINTER, SCPU64, VIC20)
  • FIXME: could not identify some C128 ROMs: kernalfi, kernalfr, kernalit, kernalno
    • when ROMs have been identified, fix the code/checksums in c128rom.h/.c
  • FIXME: could not identify some Printer ROMs: mps801.bin, mps803.bin, nl10.bin
  • FIXME: could not identify SCPU ROM: scpu64 (wanted is the part number of the actual SCPU ROM / what is written on the sticker)
  • FIXME: could not identiffy some PET ROMs: chargen.de

3.6.1 feedback threads

• https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=960346
• https://www.forum64.de/index.php?thread/122829-vice-3-6-1-has-been-released/
• http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10323