The reason why the CVS things are on this board at this high frequency is because the latest stable release is old.

DOSBox shortcuts. There is some information about it (by reading between the lines) in the readme as it descriptes the -conf parameter.
Next not everybody uses this system. Quite some people will not like it.
But if you are big fan of it. you can always optimize your story and submit it as a patch for the readme.

The Wiki is quite normal. It may have commands that you don't know of. That doesn't make it weird.

"Tiger-Heli"]I have been using DosBox for all of a week now, and am completely amazed at what it is capable of and how well it works.

Indeed. I've been using it since Harekiet announced it back in 2002??. I've been amazed every time I've loaded it up!

However, I have some suggestions (as a new user and someone outside the community) on some ways (documentation-wise, I am not a programmer) to make it better

And don't take any of this as being unappreciative of all of the efforts of Qbix, DosFreak, MiniMax, Firestorm225, Anubis, and countless others that I am unfortunately not familiar enough with to give proper credit to!

That's what these forums are for. DosBox wouldn't be what it is without the Internet. Well, there would be no DosBox without the Internet! Any and all suggestions are welcome!

BTW, I have been using MAME (http://www.mame.net) for years, so the concept of a well-written program that needs tweaks to its setup files and is much more capable than it's documentation is not new to me.

heh. I think this sums up just about any project on Sourceforge!

General Installation Issues:

I used the guide at
http://www.abandonia.com/main.php?nav=index&FAQ=1 and installation went very straightforward. I have also read Firestorm's guide here which is similar and also very useful. The problem is that depending on where they downloaded DosBox, users may not know these exist. I think the best option would be to save these to an html file (with embedded graphics) that could be included in the main downloads (or at least the windows downloads, cross-platform capability is not my strong suite).

I think that I may have suggested that the guides and compatibility database should be saved into the official DosBox releases in the DosBox Wish List Thread but I'm not sure. I'll have to doublecheck. It's good to hear someone agree tho since it seems that most people seem to believe that EVERYONE IS ALWAYS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET! Well....they are not and it's nice to have stuff OFFLINE and packaged with the program instead of going online and hunting it down.

CVS Builds […]
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CVS Builds

I think more mention of the CVS builds should be included on the main site. Qbix informed me that this is discouraged b/c the main developers don't want to be bothered answering posts about bugs in the development (CVS) builds that don't affect the stable build.

I can appreciate this, but my first two posts on this forum were:

"Why can't I use my USB joystick with DosBox?" and
"How come the graphics in F-19 are corrupted?"

In both cases, the solution was to install a CVS build. Had this info been more readily mentioned, I could have saved a lot of time fiddling with options that didn't need to be changed, and the forum would not need to spend so much time answering simple (as it turns out) questions.

Problem here is that CVS builds are not for the common user. Stuff can and does break in the CVS builds. Although this has happened very rarely recently it did happen alot in the earlier in DosBox Development and undoubtedly if/when there are major changes in DosBox they will happen again. So imagine if say someone improves Dynamic mode in DosBox to provide MASSIVE improvements in speed and the CVS is posted to the DosBox website. 500 people download it.......and 500 people have problems because Dynamic mode is broken.........This is why we have DosBox Beta testers. 😀

Yes, it is a pain to have to point people to DosBox CVS builds all the time but I'm sure that DosBox 0.63 does what people want it to and if it doesn't they will hopefully investigate the matter further and find the CVS builds (it's not like it's a secret that sourceforge projects are in CVS....).

Also another benefit of not providing CVS builds is the fact that we can pinpoint Game problems to a specific build of DosBox. Frequently we get people posting here with a problem with a game, they don't mention what version of DosBox they are using, we find out that they are using v0.60,v0.61...we provide them with 0.63 and suddenly their programs works! We then know that 0.63 fixed there problem whereas if the user could download the CVS directly they most likely would not report their problem.

DosBox -conf file/Wiki comments

There needs to be better documentation of what the config file options actually do. The .conf file text explains what the options are (true/false, simple/dynamic/normal/full), but little in the way of what they can do or can't do.

Agreed. I've done this a little in my user-friendly dosbox.conf thread but it's not really that serious as of yet and my heart really isn't in it. I'm much more interested in helping improve dosbox compatibility than worrying about user-friendliness. Although obviously the current dosbox.conf did frustrate me enough to post that thread. 😉 I'm still doing research on all of the options tho and that will eventually go into the DosBox WIKI.

In other words, "When would I want to set dynamic core as opposed to full core? What affect does changing this setting have?"

Agreed. Can be very confusing for new users.....and even people who have used it for awhile that haven't used some options.

I have seen DosFreak's revised DosBox.conf file, and I like some of his suggestions about ordering options from fastest to slowest, but I don't think a discussion of what each option actually does belongs in the .conf file for two reasons:

1) It makes the file bloated and makes it hard to find the options you need to change if you are familiar with how the options work.

I do agree that there should be a seperate WIKI but there should be SOME explanations as to what each option does in the .conf, if not then the WIKI should be included with each DosBox download and the .conf should reference the WIKI for further explanations.

2) Ideally, I would like to see all possible options covered - (CVS build and patch options, with a note to which builds incorporate each option.). This way, for example, I could find the joystick option and there would be a note to the various CVS builds, which would cue me in that I needed to download one of those.

Well, ideally there wouldn't be 20 gajillion different CVS builds to download and there shouldn't be. Really ykhwong's CVS should be the only unofficial CVS build people should download if they just want to play their games. If they want to do actual compatibility testing they should just use straight CVS.

ykhwong's CVS uses the patches provided on the sourceforge site so basically all we need to do is contact each author and have them provide full explanations for each option.

The big problem here is that several users (DosFreak, MiniMax, Qbix, Firestorm225,and others) have all started this in various places, so it is tough to pick the best place for the info.

My feeling is that the Wiki is probably about the best place for this, but there should be a link in EVERY DosBox.conf file to the Wiki so that user's know where to find it.

I also think as I said earlier that all options should be listed with a reference to which build supports the option.

Well, there is the DosBox WIKI but I prefer posting my musings in the forum first since I am the first to admit that I don't know everything and I'd like to get everyone's input first. Just rushing out to the DosBox WIKI with is more public than the forum and posting my musings seems rushed to me.

Well, yeah for the common user just use ykhwong's build which includes all of the patches that any user would need.

Speaking of the Wiki, I tried to modify the .conf file page (to add more info on the VGA\EGA\Tandy\Hercules options) but when I […]
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Speaking of the Wiki, I tried to modify the .conf file page (to add more info on the VGA\EGA\Tandy\Hercules options) but when I selected "Edit This Document", I didn't see any of the existing text on the editing page (only the headings) For example:

----
[[Anchor sdl]]
[[Transclude dosbox.conf/sdl]]

----
[[Anchor dosbox]]
[[Transclude dosbox.conf/dosbox]]

----
[[Anchor render]]
[[Transclude dosbox.conf/render]]

----
[[Anchor cpu]]
[[Transclude dosbox.conf/cpu]]

Is this normal? The other Wiki based pages that I have seen (such as http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek:_Th … Original_Series) you just click a link marked Edit and you can view and change the existing content. (Not that this is great as it seems like the page could get maliciously trashed pretty easily).

That main page gets it's text from the subcategories as the top. So Click on SDL,dosbox, render, etc.

DosBox Shortcuts […]
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DosBox Shortcuts

Someone needs to write somewhere a guide on setting up shortcuts to launch a game in DosBox. I figured this out from one of the replies on Abandonia, but I don't see it documented anywhere. Something along the lines of:

* You typically don't want to edit your dosbox.conf file in the main dosbox folder once you have installed the program, as this will change the settings for ALL games that you play using DosBox. Instead copy the file to a different directory (I recommend the individual game directory) and modify it there. In the copied file, you can add parameters to the AUTOEXEC portion of the file to tell DosBox how to launch your game. Now to quickly launch DosBox, I recommend copying the shortcut to DosBox that was created in the initial installation, renaming it to match the individual game, and modifying the path to the dosbox.conf file to the file that you just copied. Now clicking the shortcut will launch the game and you can modify the individual game's dosbox.conf file and check the effect of changes without affecting your other games.

This could be fleshed out with examples and graphics, but you get the basic idea. But I don't know the best place to add this?

I think you don't see much on dosbox shortcuts is because the people who would want to use shortcuts use GUI's like D-FEND. I really haven't gone through my massive collection of DOS games and bothered to setup shortcuts. I simply setup DosBox as I need to whenever I feel like playing a game.

Well, if you think you have the skills and time to write a guide for using DosBox shortcuts effectivly then post a thread here, people will pick over it and then we can add it to the DosBox Guides forum or stick it in the Wiki.

The reason why the CVS things are on this board at this high frequency is because the latest stable release is old.

I was not complaining about the CVS things being on the board, I just thought they should be mentioned more often on the main download areas. So when is 0.64 coming out? (Not being ungrateful, but if the authors feel that the last stable release is old, then it's probably time to release a new version.

DOSBox shortcuts. There is some information about it (by reading between the lines) in the readme as it descriptes the -conf parameter.
Next not everybody uses this system. Quite some people will not like it.
But if you are big fan of it. you can always optimize your story and submit it as a patch for the readme.

Agreed that not everyone will use or like this system, but if it is documented, they can modify it as they see fit - I may even include modifications at the end of it. (For example, instead of 5 files named dosbox.conf in each game directory, you could have a folder named C:\Dosbox\conf with named conf files (f19.conf, f117.conf) etc. have those files mount and launch each game and then point your shortcut to them.

I just haven't seen any method laid out in a comprehensive step-by-step format. What I will probably do is what DosFreak suggested and write up a method and post it in a thread here, where it can be commented on and then added to the Guides or the readme or the Wiki or any other format.

The Wiki is quite normal. It may have commands that you don't know of. That doesn't make it weird.

I never said it was weird. I basically had two reasons for posting -
1) Determining the best venue for posting documentation, and
2) If that ends up being the WIKI, then figuring out how to use it.

Problem here is that CVS builds are not for the common user.

I am not sure I agree with that statement at the present time, although I can tell from what others have said that it was once true.

Stuff can and does break in the CVS builds.

If I understand this correctly, you mean from one CVS build to the next. I.e. if I download the 11-15-2005 build of ykhwong's CVS and it fixes my problems, they will be fixed indefinitely, but if I download the 11-21-2005 build, they may be broken again. Pretty much true of all beta software . . .

So imagine if say someone improves Dynamic mode in DosBox to provide MASSIVE improvements in speed and the CVS is posted to the DosBox website. 500 people download it.......and 500 people have problems because Dynamic mode is broken.........This is why we have DosBox Beta testers.

Then it sounds to me like you need a statement that Version XXX dated XXMonthXXXX of so-and-so's CVS build provides a massive improvement in Dynamic Mode, YMMV with later builds. (Assuming past CVS builds are available for download, which I haven't been in the scene long enough to know 🙁

Yes, it is a pain to have to point people to DosBox CVS builds all the time but I'm sure that DosBox 0.63 does what people want it to and if it doesn't they will hopefully investigate the matter further and find the CVS builds (it's not like it's a secret that sourceforge projects are in CVS....).

Actually, I had never heard of CVS before DosBox, but I haven't done too much in Sourceforge either (some here and there).

Regarding 0.63 doing what people want it to - I would think a lot of people would want USB joystick (or ANY joystick support). (It's probably just coincidence that one of the 4 DOS games that I REALLY wanted to get running (F-19 Stealth Fighter) had graphics problems in the main build that were fixed in the CVS.)

Also another benefit of not providing CVS builds is the fact that we can pinpoint Game problems to a specific build of DosBox. Frequently we get people posting here with a problem with a game, they don't mention what version of DosBox they are using, we find out that they are using v0.60,v0.61...we provide them with 0.63 and suddenly their programs works! We then know that 0.63 fixed there problem whereas if the user could download the CVS directly they most likely would not report their problem.

Not sure that I buy into this line of reasoning either (not looking to start a flame war either, BTW). You should already know what was fixed in 0.63 and anyway it doesn't matter as people should be using the latest build anyway. I recently posted which version of the CVS build fixed my F-19 problems so the authors knew that the changes between 0.63 and that build were what fixed it.

The difference is in when you are getting data on fixes and how stable you make your stable build. For example - MAME used to put out a working release and then several betas until the next working release. Problem was that the program got too big to test all the games, so you ended up with the first "betas" after a "final" release being bugfixes, so eventually, they scrapped the "beta" release concept and any release is either final or beta, depending on how optimistic or pessimistic you are.

I'm still doing research on all of the options tho and that will eventually go into the DosBox WIKI.

I don't mind doing the research and will try to update the WIKI as time permits.

I do agree that there should be a seperate WIKI but there should be SOME explanations as to what each option does in the .conf, if not then the WIKI should be included with each DosBox download and the .conf should reference the WIKI for further explanations.

Again (and it will be MiniMax's decision as well), but I would like to see the WIKI include options for other builds with a reference to which build includes them).

The problem is it will only confuse new users more if say the 0.64 dosbox.conf included information on gameport/joystick emulation, but this was only supported on the CVS builds.

Well, ideally there wouldn't be 20 gajillion different CVS builds to download and there shouldn't be. Really ykhwong's CVS should be the only unofficial CVS build people should download if they just want to play their games. If they want to do actual compatibility testing they should just use straight CVS.

And again, that's kinda my point. If the main link for DOSBOX said you should try ykhwong's CVS build if you want to test the latest experimental build then you wouldn't have situations like I had where I downloaded 0.63, then asked why my joystick didn't work, then was told to try a CVS build, then found a link to 5 different versions, then asked which one I should try, then was told to get ykhwong's . . .

Well, there is the DosBox WIKI but I prefer posting my musings in the forum first since I am the first to admit that I don't know everything and I'd like to get everyone's input first. Just rushing out to the DosBox WIKI with is more public than the forum and posting my musings seems rushed to me.

I see your point, but I disagree with you. The average new user would rather go to the WIKI and read possibly inaccurate data than sort through 20 threads on this forum on each option - many of which may be outdated.

I think the best option is to start the WIKI entry with "As far as I can tell" or sth if you are unsure, and then let other WIKI readers update it or remove the disclaimer if they can confirm it is unnecessary. That's how a WIKI is supposed to work.

Okay, I just figured out how to edit the Wiki - I wasn't realizing that you had to click on the individual section to have it's text displayed. Sorry for being dense! 😒

I think you don't see much on dosbox shortcuts is because the people who would want to use shortcuts use GUI's like D-FEND. I really haven't gone through my massive collection of DOS games and bothered to setup shortcuts.

Agreed - To me, I didn't want a bunch of dis-similar games (with the only thing in common being that they are mostly simulations and all used to run in DOS) being lumped together in one front-end program.

Then again, I didn't use a front-end with Mame (had shortcuts to call MAME and each ROM) until the number of games supported became unmanageable.

I simply setup DosBox as I need to whenever I feel like playing a game.

The problem I see with this is that there would probably be too many customizations. I can't imagine keeping a list of what cycle-count, shaders, screen output settings, etc. each game required somewhere and then manually editing the dosbox.conf file every time I wanted to play a different game . . .

Well, if you think you have the skills and time to write a guide for using DosBox shortcuts effectivly then post a thread here, people will pick over it and then we can add it to the DosBox Guides forum or stick it in the Wiki.

I'll do that!!!