bugmenot wrote:

Get rid of mounting. Get rid of it 100%. Now instead of having users mount files , replace it 100% with an auto-mount system that would auto-mount files that are in folders in the dos-box installation folder. To help you understand what I mean I made a picture.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1655/dosbox0043wn.jpg

Basically it should mount all of the files in folder A as drive A , all of the files in folder B as drive B , all of the files in folder c as drive c...

I think not. Why would I want automounted drives? I happen to prefer having freedom over what dosbox can and can't read as 'drive c:' thanks. I also don't think needlessly mounting floppy and cd-rom drives is wise. What if I want to mount an image? What if my game has multiple CD-roms? What if I want to use my real disk drives? You would have one too many drives automounted and its just messy

Now instead of user having to mount drives , all they do is COPY the files they want to mount into one of the folders , such as folder C. Then when the user starts dosbox they dont have to mount ANYTHING ! Dosbox would auto-mount all of the drives without any work.

Why not instead add your mount commands (mount c: c:\dosgames) to the end of the dosbox.conf so it is run everytime? Then whatever you copy into that directory will work just as you are expecting. Hell you can even autoswitch to drive C:\ if you add the command there too.

I know the topic title suggests only one suggestion but heres a 2nd. Tell users how to swich drives in the readme . It took me 30 minutes to figure this out (am I stupid for expecting cd c:\ to work ???)(the game I wanted to play apparently doesnt work with dosbox)

In short, yes. In long: you are just unfamiliar with dos itself, not dosbox. First you need to mount the directory you wish to use as 'drive c' and then type "C:" to switch to it. You don't use "cd" unless you are changing directories, not drives.

Crap, I hit "EDIT", instead of "Quote" again..

Sleep....must...go...to...sleep.

EDIT Fixed original post

Get rid of mounting. Get rid of it 100%. Now instead of having users mount files , replace it 100% with an auto-mount system that would auto-mount files that are in folders in the dos-box installation folder.

This doesn't work for other operating systems. (REAL operating systems like *nix). In *nix the programs are seperated from users data. So DosBox would be in:

/usr/bin or somesuch

while the actual games would be in /home/user/games/duke3d. (or anywhere you want really but usually in /home).

Obviously you don't want your games in /usr/bin

Another thing is that *nix mounting is different from Windows mounting.

In *nix you would mount your cdrom with:

mount d /media/cdrom -t cdrom

In Windows it would be:

mount d d:\ -t cdrom

All of this could of course be automagically coded in but then you are assuming that you would be servicing only Windows\*nix users, which is not the case. DosBox is used on:

Windows/Linux/MS-DOS (Finally!)/BEOS/OS2/PDA/Mobile Phones/Dreamcast/XBOX (linux)/etc......

Each system has it's own ways of addressing where to hold the games that DosBox will run and coding in all of this into DosBox would serverly reduce the compatibility of DosBox with other systems. DosBox is not just for Windows users it's for EVERYONE. Despite what you may believe it is not just a Windows world.

I know apparently a lot of users here think mounting files is fun or somthing but you have to admit that this would be simple , easier , and much less of a hassel.

No one thinks that mounting is "fun". Just like we don't think that inserting CD's into cdroms are fun....or manually typing keyboard commands into a keyboard is fun (where in an ideal world I could just think commands at the computer). Some things are necessary, DosBox mounting is one of these things. To reduce the "pain" of mounting you can use a frontend like DFEND.

I know the topic title suggests only one suggestion but heres a 2nd. Tell users how to swich drives in the readme . It took me 30 minutes to figure this out (am I stupid for expecting cd c:\ to work ???)(the game I wanted to play apparently doesnt work with dosbox)

Yep, this is from the DOSBOX README:

Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt. A: You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using the […]
Show full quote

Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt.
A: You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory.
In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you a C drive in DOSBox
which points to /home/username in Linux.

heh. the "C:" command is missing. 😉

and no your not stupid for thinking that "cd c:\" should work. It does partway in Windows NT. If your are in say:

P:\GAMES

and type in cd c:\WINDOWS

then you'll still be P:\Games but when you type in "C:", then you'll be in "C:\Windows"

CD is "Change Directory", not "Change drive".

"Q: I've got a Z instead of a C at the prompt.
A: You have to make your directories available as drives in DOSBox by using
the "mount" command. For example, in Windows "mount C D:\GAMES" will give
you a C drive in DOSBox which points to your Windows D:\GAMES directory.
In Linux, "mount c /home/username" will give you a C drive in DOSBox
which points to /home/username in Linux."

This does not tell me how to swich drives , as you claim it does. That information is not there.

I dont really know what you guys what. You ask for suggestions to make this program more user-friendly , but at the same time totally ignore any suggestions that would make this program more user friendly.

As for the front-end thing , I downloaded one of those and there were nothing but source code for some remote unpopular programming language (I mean wtf are tlc files ? )

I also fail to understand wht its impossible to make an auto-mount for linux . Really , if you have to make a seperate exe for linux (like 99% of programs do , that is if they even support linux , as supporting it is pretty pointless , as only about 2% of users use it) .

I also fail to understand why the creator of dosbox doesnt make an offical GUI frontend . Sure he has said its "near imposible" to make gui in a ms-dos program , but it is sure possible to make it in a seperate program.

You would be in control of what is being mounted. Obviously the auto-mounting could be turned off. However you would be in control. It would only mount files inside 26 folders inside the dosbox installation folder. Why is that scary ? Doesnt Windows (or linux/mac for those living in a different world in which microsoft doesnt have a monopoly) auto run files when you start you pc ? You dont give it premission to run every single file it needs to run during start-up do you ? I fail to see any real disadvantage to auto-mounting.

@BUGMENOT:
Make your own DOSBOX build supporting what you want - you can add whatever you want.
Switching drives (CD command etc.)
- you should know basics of DOS (it is needed for DOS games). README is not DOS tutorial. DOSBOX is far easier than normal DOS (e.g.: ever had a DOS game in real DOS not having enough memory and trying to fix it?).

GUI
This may happen isometime in future. Till then use frontends. The real DOS was far worse.

Mounting
It is as easy as adding one line to DOSBOX.CONF. If you cannot make it, then you failed the intelligence test and you should not use the DOSBOX.

Linux
The main developers work on Linux, DOSBOX was started on Linux and it is used by people on Linux. In any case the DOSBOXfor Windows has more features already (e.g. direct serial is not on Linux).

If DOSBOX is too complicated for you do not use it.

Well, may be I am a bit harsh, but I am still angry about your previous thread. Also you could learn to ask for things or to propose them less ultimatively (as if we had obligation to fullfill all your wishes as soon as possible and additionaly apologize that we have not done it before...). This is free project made by volunteers and you did not pay anything... You should realize that...

Unfortunately there are always people like you (one of the developers told me that they far too often get mails where somebody *requires* something or curses them that something does not work)... I will keep an eye on you and I will be closing your threads if I do not like them...

Edit: I read some more of your posts elsewhere and I feel I was not remotely so harsh as you deserve... So GO AWAY AND STOP POSTING HERE !!!

Mirek

If people are mailing you guys , whining about the lack of usability in your program , then why not improve it. I think that makes sense to most people.

I get it , you like linux , you think its an open source revolution becuase the OS has a large market share in servers. However I must say that in reality , which is what we live in, that Windows has a monopoly on PCs. If you do forget , this program is for PCs. This is undeniable , and therefore you may want to consiter actally trying to make the program easier to use for people with windows (just as I may want to consiter leaning how to spell)

To your first comment. Do you think I actally know programming code ? I dont. I have little knowlege in it. Heres an asm function I understand.

nop
nop
nop

To your secound comment. I tried to use a frontend and all I got was a few tender love and care files.

To your third comment. I dont know much about programming , but I am more than confident that someone with knowlege of programming could program this auto-mount in at most a few hours. Not that I am suggesting that you should even make this auto-mounting.

Enough of you, you pest...

Mirek

Mounting as implemented is needed because the directory structure of a modern PC is not conducive to running old games. For example, I run my old games from subdirectories of d:\oldgames, but a lot of old DOS games must be run from the C: drive. Also, long filenames are not supported by DOS games and mounting provides a convenient way to deal with this. Then there's the games that have a cow if they don't know how to detect how much disk space you actually have - mounting deals with this as well. Lastly, it's very useful as a way of protecting non-game-related files from malicious or buggy software run from within DOSBox - there's no need for a program running inside DOSBox to have access to every file on your computer.

As for your comments on front-ends: several excellent front-ends already exist. I haven't used them myself, but everyone I have directed to them has reported success.