project division

[roquen]

I was thinking, with the huge volume of problems coming from controller issues, how difficult (you can be mean to me, i can take it :P) would it be to organize this project into a few divisions even further than we have

emulationstation has a sweet scraper, I feel like the scraper shouldn’t be available all the time, maybe for cleanliness we can add a -command like

emulationstation -admin

that loads emulationstation with the scraper option, and with two to-be-developed programs as well

Joystick Manager
/usr/sbin/es-joystick
this non-existent program helps manage joystick configurations for as many systems as we can build options for, and then manages the configuration files for you. I’d be willing to make the SVG files for a UI in the style of /theme/simple/ but I am terrible at any real programming.

This program could also introduce a method for installing special drivers for things like sixaxis, xbox and that HID problem that Retro-Bit introduces.

We’ve also moved a lot of things for better structure but I think maybe declaring a file standard for this project is appropriate.

moving all project materials into /usr/.
This will help prepare the system for a thinned version distro with only the necessary system files and having a happy home for the project without mixing with the formal system

(just a draft concept, i have some free time to fire off some thoughts)
/usr/bin/ == home of emulationstation, and any future app for administration
/usr/bin/ == also home of emulators considered primary or “best performing” by project

/usr/games/ == native game bins, and maybe this is where all roms should go too, but not in /usr/games/roms, with a decided standard for name convention (ie /usr/games/nintendo-nes or ./nintendo-entertainment-system or ./nes) whatever the project declares, just so its clear.

/usr/opt/ == emulators that are considered by the project to be optional 2nd

/usr/etc/ == configuration files for everything
/usr/etc/es-systems.config == example
/usr/etc/nintendo-nes.joystick == example
/usr/etc/nintendo-nes.retroarch == example

/usr/share/es-themes/ == es theme files
/usr/local/etc/ == standard savestate location for games with the ability to save. Not the location for artificial saving, that location would be preset to /home/pi/.games/standard-system-long-name/file.ext

my thoughts on this are that the natural systems should be preserved, and any extra features that emulators offer (video, screenshots, freezes, save-states, etc etc etc) ought to be located in a natural home-user location and not included in the core system files.

/home/pi/Games/Saves/save.file
/home/pi/Games/Videos/video.file
/home/pi/Games/Screenshots/screenshot.png

and it can all be lower case, I just did the uppercase because that seems to be an emerging standard of home directories on non-server systems. (I prefer lowercase for everything)

moving everything to a happy home down in /usr/ allows us to release an SD card image with almost everything stripped from the system except the dependencies, and then we could have a script to install all the stripped out programs (or have a dev version with all that stuff pre-installed)

I have no idea where a happy place for shell scripts should live. I can’t think of a place in /usr/ that would follow filesystem hierarchy standards.

Anyway, I’ve typed enough for someone with ideas and without the ability to help make those ideas happen :P

[Mike]

I’m using PS2 controllers with a usb adapter and I love RetroPie and Emulation station partly BECAUSE I only had to setup controls once and now they magically work for all emulators (hotkey buttons don’t work for a couple like gpsp and mame)

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