1. Do I have to install it, or can I run it directly?
2. When I run it directly (java -jar tinyFE.jar) I get an error dialog stating that:
   
   DOSBox was not found in the installation directory.
   C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.72
   tinyFE version 0.6.5 beta requires DOSBox to load.
   
   I am on a Swedish version of Windows XP, and the "Program Files" is not called "Programs Files" - it is "C:\Program". And - I don't have DOSBox installed on my C-drive, it is on an USB-stick.

You can run it directly; no install is needed. But it would help if I didn't forget to mention the command line options. My apologies.

To specify which DOSBox to use, use the following command line option;

java -jar tinyfe.jar -d=<path to DOSBox>

Example:

java -jar tinyfe.jar -d="C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.72"

To specify where the DOS programs are, use the following command line option;

java -jar tinyfe.jar -p=<path to DOS programs>

To see a usage message, use ...

java -jar tinyfe.jar -u

These options can be combined.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks. Got it to work just fine. It is different compared to many of the other frontends popping up everywhere. Most (all?) of the frontends allows configurations to be created with a GUI. Not so with tinyFE - it is purely a DOSBox game launcher. Any configuration for each game is done by editing a copy of the normal dosbox.conf file located in each game s program directory.

I had fun putting the JAR-file in my DBGL folder and simply launch it from the command line with

java -jar tinyFE.jar -d=DOSBox-0.72

It correctly identified all the programs installed into DBGL's dosroot folder (but - due to the quick-and-dirty nature of this method - it also created a host of tinyFE.txt in the DBGL's capture folders 😀 ), and from there it was easy sailing launching the games.

It is a bit talky when it starts up with lots of message about:

1[ tinyFE version 0.6.5 beta ] WARNING : An exception occurred reading [ F:\DBGL\
2dosroot\Oubliette\tinyFE.txt ], creating default settings file.
3[ tinyFE version 0.6.5 beta ] WARNING : An exception occurred reading [ F:\DBGL\
4dosroot\Conquest of Camelot\tinyFE.txt ], creating default settings file.
5[ tinyFE version 0.6.5 beta ] WARNING : An exception occurred reading [ F:\DBGL\
6dosroot\Headline Harry\tinyFE.txt ], creating default settings file.

Also, even when launched with the -u option, it proceeds to launch the tinyFE. My expectation was to only show the usage dialog, wait for confirmation, and then exit.

It would be nice if, instead of writing it to the console, that the summary message "Loaded [ 30 ] Games" was displayed on screen when tinyFE is launched (but only if a new tinyFE.txt had been created during launch).

Thanks for the feedback MiniMax.

Should have warned you about the tinyfe.txt files; tinyFE will create this file in each program directory. It's used to track GUI settings (such as favorites).

I incorporated your suggested changes.

1. Added a -g to show console log messages (ie, not so talky at startup 😉).
2. Modified the -u option so tinyFE will exit after displaying the usage message.
3. An on-screen message is shown when new games are detected.

tinyfe wrote:

Should have warned you about the tinyfe.txt files; tinyFE will create this file in each program directory. It's used to track GUI settings (such as favorites).

Would it be possible to only create it if an DOS-executable was found?

Maybe an option to NOT create the tinyFE.txt files at all?

Noticed that you spell the word Java in uppercase (JAVA). I think the official name is mixed (Java).

I think the best I can do is only create the tinyfe.txt file when settings change. So, if you select a game, you are effectively changing the games settings (because the layout of the pane is saved). If you never select a game, an file will never be created.

The only problem is that breaks the "New Game" functionality; because tinyFE tests if tinyfe.txt exists to determine if the game is new or not, but if we never create tinyfe.txt, then the game is always considered new.

Seems like can't have one w.o. the other.

I'll fix the JAVA thingy.

The normal case would be to create the txt-files - just as it is now, so the new-game detection / reporting would still work. It was purely a selfish wish so I don't have to do a

find . -name tinyFE.txt -exec rm {} \;

after testing. It could also be handy if you had a CD with games on...

It was worth looking into though, and your suggestions have been great.

I've thought about the CD option; however I'm not sure what to bundle it with, or even what I could legally distribute. Any thoughts on that?

Look at DBGL. It comes with a set of 10 games or so, that I think is legal to distribute. But, I am not a lawyer. While I have no doubt that the games have been released as "free", I am not sure what that really means. It could range from "free to download from the copyright holders site only" to "free to download and redistribute by any means over the whole galaxy".

A couple of updates have been made; and a new screen shot taken.

1. The look and feel of the GUI is now determined by the OS, instead of being explicitly set.

2. Fixed a minor, rarely occurring bug.

MiniMax,

I took your advice and put together a "bundle" with some freeware games.

Only problem is I have no place to host it. Until that gets worked out, if you or anyone wants it, send me a message and I'll get it to you.

Thanks for your input.

tinyfe wrote:

Only problem is I have no place to host it. Until that gets worked out, if you or anyone wants it, send me a message and I'll get it to you.

For now,
some free file hosting services maybe:

http://www.filefactory.com/
http://www.usaupload.net/?
http://www.savefile.com/
http://filehost.justfreespace.com/index.php
http://www.sharebig.com/

You may upload your application to more than one of them at a time, but be aware that some services will remove files if limit is gone.

You may start a (free?) blog site where you describe the newest version, if it becomes available and you give link to the current download file service(s) you've used to upload it.

Thanks IIGS; I'll get that set up soon and post the information here.

I have a blog which is acting as a home for tinyFE (thanks IIGS for the suggestions).

http://tinyfe.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the suggestions!

An update to http://tinyfe.blogspot.com has been posted.

tinyFE version 0.7.1 is now available.

excelent I added the information to the wiki. Can you tell me with which version of dosbox it is compatibile ? (frontends.dosbox.com)

Hey Qbix,

I developed tinyFE with DOSBox 0.72 as the target version. However I did test it with 0.60 and 0.70 as well, and it seemed to work fine.