BlitterStudio/amiberry

Query: GUI -> Quickstart panel feature/presentation?

giantclambake opened this issue · 0 comments

We'll suppose that Start in Quickstart mode is enabled, and user sees this when launching Amiberry...

ex

Here, the 'quickstart' process is select Amiga model & up to 2 floppy image(s), Start...

..you can on the other hand do this instead...

ex2

...where the 'quickstart' process is after selecting CD32/CDTV models & cdrom image, Start...

The first quickstart process lends itself to the basic A500 days, and only internal DF0: with maybe external DF1: floppy drives. Likewise the second quickstart process lends itself to the to those Amiga models with only a single cdrom drive.

It occurs to me, that certainly when choosing a 'big box' Amiga model (tho' same is true for A600/1200), the inference is I've chosen an Amiga model that has a hard-drive interface... and it's actually a .hdf file that I want to 'quickstart'. Many of the (newer) Amiga titles released come in various media formats, including .hdf files, and the ones I've tried display the fastest load times...(the .hdf files that come with AF releases are another example)...so they're preferable in that sense.

I think it'd be a nice feature, that when selecting Amiga models with 'native' hard-drive interface, the DF0: selector remains, and the DF1: field is replaced with a DH0: selector, that supports .hdf file selection. (this is quickstart, harddrive directories support is not entertained here..) ...not sure what your thoughts are about this, but certainly 'quickstartable' .hdf files are real.. ;)

The other query I have here, is evident in the image above ~ ie; if user has selected model CD32, that action displays the intent to use cdrom based media, not the WHDLoad auto-config: option ....which is still an active option ; I would expect it to become greyed out/unavailable when user selects the CD32 (any?) Amiga model...(but it would still be a change of mind option =)

In my mind, the WHDLoad auto-config: selector is mutually exclusive to the above Quickstart operations (model etc are auto-configured), but there's no GUI differentiation to that fact....it's always 'dangling' on that panel as an available option no matter what you do.

I wonder if GUI presentation here would better served, if the WHDLoad option were enclosed in a window frame (like on the IO Ports panel)... the window titlebar might be 'WHDLoad Auto-config' and the file selector might be renamed 'WHDLoad LHA file' .... even a line box around the WHDLoad option would do, to visually separate it from the other options in this panel. (perhaps the advent of the WHDLoad panel caused my thoughts to wander this way).

I'm just looking to rewrite the helptext for this panel, and wanted to make sure the panel itself was as replete as possible ;)

Thoughts?

TIA