Mamewah "rom_folder_vs_listxml" better than "rom_folder_vs_dat_file"?

[jimj]

With Mamewah 1.6 and Mame 0.88 is there any reason to create a mame.dat and use "rom_folder_vs_dat_file" when "rom_folder_vs_listxml" works?  Would using a dat file be faster?

TIA,
Jim

[elvis]

The only time the function is used is during a game list update.  So firstly, ask yourself which is quicker: manually creating the dat and updating, or letting the FE do it for you.  And secondly, ask yourself how often do you update your FE gamelist?

Speaking for myself, I let the FE take care of it.  That, and I update my game list roughly once a year at best.  There only seems to be 3D games being added to MAME recently which don't interest me in the slightest.

[Minwah]

Using a dat file would probably make generating the list a bit faster.  But it's a pain having to make the dat file yourself.  Personally I just use the listxml method as I only regenerate the list when I update MAME.

[jimj]

Do I understand correctly that the only time this is even used is when you generate the main mame-0 master list?  This isn't used for creating your own filtered lists?

[elvis]

Do I understand correctly that the only time this is even used is when you generate the main mame-0 master list?  This isn't used for creating your own filtered lists?

That's how I understand it works.  Why would you need to update the master list every time you add a filter?

[jimj]

That's how I understand it works.  Why would you need to update the master list every time you add a filter?

Thanks for the confirmation.  It seems that custom filter lists are built off of the master list (I was thinking they all used listxml info directly).

One more question before I let this thread die.  I did need to update my master list after making a change to catver.ini (I changed one game's category).  This worked ok, but I noticed that all of my custom filter lists were reset to showing all games.  Is this a bug, or just the way it has to work?  It's not a big deal since I don't plan on regenerating my master list again, but I thought minwah might want to know about it if it is a bug.

[Minwah]

One more question before I let this thread die.  I did need to update my master list after making a change to catver.ini (I changed one game's category).  This worked ok, but I noticed that all of my custom filter lists were reset to showing all games.  Is this a bug, or just the way it has to work?  It's not a big deal since I don't plan on regenerating my master list again, but I thought minwah might want to know about it if it is a bug.

It's not a bug...the filters are reset in case any new categories etc. are added upon list generation (I should improve this in future so existing filters are not reset).  The lists are purposely not reset so that you don't lose any stuff you may have manually done.