How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?
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@obsidianspider
I'm not cured of my always-looking-for-an-excuse-to-code disease and am working on the "MAME ROW management" tool.I decided to make it operable through dialogs. Look how it's going (working flow to register the week's winner game):
Why invest time in a code that only one or two people will use?
BECAUSE PROGRAMMING IS FUN!!! :-) -
@meleu I'm not sure what this is doing?
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@obsidianspider I want to automate the post generation. The script will automatically get the random numbers and check:
- this game was played before?
- this game is a mahjong?
To check if the game was played before, we need to keep the
mamerow_gamelist.txtupdated. And to avoid editing a not-human-friendly.csvfile, the updating will be made through those dialogs. There's a lot of error checking behind the cool dialog boxes. :-) -
@meleu You have much more free time than I do. Creating that post only takes a few minutes for me, but you're welcome to take it back when you're ready. :)
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@obsidianspider Not exactly free time.
My job is to operate an industrial process. When the process is stable the automatism does everything alone and I just have to monitor. I can not play video games in the control room, but I can program and monitor the process at the same time (please, don't see me as a Homer Simpson at work!). :-)
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@obsidianspider LOL. I'm saving this video link to post when people come here complaining about the runcommand's "Press a button to configure" message!!
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@obsidianspider said in How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?:
Creating that post only takes a few minutes for me, but you're welcome to take it back when you're ready. :)
The first version is ready. If you have time, try it. Any feedback is welcome.
How to "install": go to the directory you want and then
git clone https://github.com/meleu/mame-row-management.gitJust execute and follow the instructions:
./mamerow.shCheers!
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@meleu said in How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?:
I tested it and it seems to work, though it may be a solution in search of a problem. It took me longer to do than my manual process, but maybe because I'm not used to using the tool yet.
Anyway, the post for MAME ROW #22 will be the one that was made using your tool and is now sitting on my computer waiting for Monday.
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I was just looking at the script itself and it makes me want to get back into writing some code to improve my skills. Very nicely done. Also, what's this comment about "Create secret Raspberry Pi network and take over the world" about? #kidding ;)
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@obsidianspider said in How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?:
it may be a solution in search of a problem.
My primary motivation to start work on this was the question "Can I edit comma-separated values files with shell scripts?". I'm satisfied with the results and learned a lot while writing this tool:
- how to get random numbers from random.org in a shell script.
- finally learned how to use the
dialog --form. - a bunch of
grepandsedtricks. - etc...
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@meleu Kind of like that screen on a cartridge add-on for my Super Famicom. It was more of a "can I do this" type of thing than it as a practical feature. When I'm playing I really only glance at it, it if that. I love figuring crap like that out and learning new skills, but I don't know that I'll get to your level of coding prowess any time soon.
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When I tried to create MAME ROW #23 this week it didn't seem to have the data from MAME ROW 22 saved, so I'm going to head back to my manual post creation with the assistance of your initial lookup tool.
Thanks again for taking the time to make some scripts for the community.
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@obsidianspider said in How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?:
it didn't seem to have the data from MAME ROW 22 saved
Did you update the gamelist with the MAME ROW 22 info and it wasn't saved?!
The path is "Manage MAME ROW gamelist" >> "Update gamelist with a new round information". Screenshots below:
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@meleu I'll test it again some time. I've been busy this week working on my Gameboy Advance project and I still have a bit of a cold. Thanks.
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In 2 weeks MAME ROW completes one year of existence.
Do you guys have some suggestion for something special for MAME ROW #52?
One idea I had:
- Go to the MAME ROW forum category.
- On the top right of the page click on "Sort by" and choose "Most posts".
- Ignore the sticky post and get the games of the top 5. Currently they are:
- Pac'n'Pal
- Phoenix
- Frenzy
- Joust
- Aliens
- Make a strawpoll with the top 5.
What do you think?
tagging some MAME ROW players: @obsidianspider @UDb23 @GtBFilms @backstander @dankcushions @mediamogul @qix77 @lilbud @Fruitybit @Lyle_JP @pjft @mholsson @buddyscott @MrJordaaany @AndersHP @chubsta @itsnitro @Cole_48 @R1n0X @Brigane @edmaul69
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@meleu I was thinking about something along the lines of an actual bracketed tournament, possibly using those 5 games.
We set up a poll as you suggested, and the game with the most votes will be the 1 used for a single elimination tournament.
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@meleu Most posts isn't a good metric as quite a few of them have sidebar conversations that have nothing to do with top scores, but I'm up for whatever in terms of doing something special for the anniversary.
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@obsidianspider said in How Can We Make MAME ROW Better?:
Most posts isn't a good metric
Fully agree. But at least it is a metric. :-)
Most views would be a little better, but I think there's no option to sort topics this way...
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@meleu measuring engagement either by total number of votes or number of on-topic posts would be a way, but it would be tedious to go back and document.
I think maybe a "submit your favorite from the past year" and then we pick from that list might be a good thing to do as well.
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