loader rewrite, which is still in progress....)
Replaced mamedriv.c with a new driver list mechanism that is generated
by the build tools. The emulator core now expects the presence of a
file called src/$(TARGET)/$(SUBTARGET).lst which is just a raw list of
driver names, one per line. C and C++ comments are still permitted.
This file is parsed by a new build tool makelist which extracts the
driver names, sorts them, and generates a file called drivlist.c, which
is consumed by the core. [Aaron Giles]
Added new osdcore function osd_malloc_array() which is identical to
osd_malloc() but obviously hints that the underlying allocation is for
an array. Updated all callers to use the appropriate form. Modified the
Windows allocator to only use guard pages for array-style allocations,
allowing us to enable them once again in debug builds. [Aaron Giles]
Created new static class driver_list to wrap accesses to the list of
available drivers. Improved speed of driver lookups by relying on the
presorting done by makelist. [Aaron Giles]
Created helper class driver_enumerator as a helper for iterating through
the list of drivers. This class supports basic filtering and iteration,
and also serves as a temporary cache of machine_configs. [Aaron Giles]
Created cli_frontend object to wrap all the CLI handling code in
clifront.c. Updated/simplified all the code to take advantage of the
driver_enumerator. [Aaron Giles]
Created media_auditor object to wrap all the auditing functions in
audit.c. Updated all users to the new interface. Note that the new
auditing mechanism is slightly out of sync with the romload code in
terms of finding ROMs owned by devices, so it may mis-report some
issues until the new ROM loading code is in. [Aaron Giles]
Added concept of a per-device searchpath. For most devices, their
searchpath is just the short name of the device. For driver_devices, the
searchpath is driver[;parent[;bios]]. This searchpath will eventually be
used by the rom loader to find ROMs. For now it is used by the media
auditor only. [Aaron Giles]
Created info_xml_creator object to wrap all the info generation functions
in info.c. Converted the file to C++ and cleaned up the input processing
code. [Aaron Giles]
(not for whatsnew ... Known issues: auditing of CHDs appears busted, and
debug builds report unfreed memory if you use the built-in game picker)
-------------------------------
Home Run Classic [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Country Club Classic [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Trap Shoot Classic [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Water-Nymph (Ver. 1.4) [Team Europe, Luca Elia]
- exidy440/m72/segasnd are converted to legacy devices.
- cage/dcs/williams variables are restructured internally to
resemble a device, simplifying a future device conversion. Some
AM_BASE macros are eliminated as well.
- taito_en has minor changes to eliminate an AM_BASE macro.
and adapted the char input code to match shortnames or descriptions accordingly [Fabio Priuli]
out of whatsnew: hats off to whoever created the menu code! I thought implementing this would have been much harder, but it was not at all!
