Make startup verbosity configurable #477

kcgen · 2020-07-02T04:27:14Z

This is a rework of the prior instant launch PR, which was somewhat narrow in its focus.

This PR transforms that into the general concept of Startup Verbosity.

Level	Show Splash Window	Show Welcome Banner	Show pre-executable stdout	Program Display
High	yes	yes	yes	yes
Medium	no	yes	yes	yes
Low	no	no	yes	yes
Silent	no	no	no	yes

Graphically, this corresponds to:

Level	Show Splash Window	Show Welcome Banner	Show pre-executable stdout
High
Medium	no
Low	no	no
Silent	no	no	no

'high' startup verbosity is default

This guarantees the existing verbose behavior is retained for new users, while allowing experienced users to dial back the verbosity.

'auto' startup verbosity is available

auto is equivalent to "high" if dosbox was not passed an executable, and "low" if it was.

What is pre-executable stdout?

This is non-executable stdout constructed by dosbox prior to launching an executable or batch-file.

For example, when you give dosbox an executable to launch, ie: dosbox duke1/dn1.exe, it still generates the following stdout, which requires setting a graphical text mode window:

If verbosity is set to quiet, then this output is suppressed prior to the first executable.

How are batch files handled with 'silent' startup verbosity?

Any output generated in a batch file will be shown.

As described above, dosbox's stdout is suppressed prior to the first executable statement, after which stdout is re-enabled. Batch files are executable, so it's up to the batch file if it generates output (or not).

To make batch execution really quiet, ensure the first line in the batch file is: @echo off, which instructs DOS not to print each line in the file.

Inside the batch file, you can similarly hide a program's text output by redirecting its output, for example: noisy\game.exe > NUL.

dosbox.conf

kcgen · 2020-07-02T14:55:31Z

@dreamer , #478 has come just in time for this too. Will rebase this and see how this works under Windows 10 64-bit :-)

dreamer

I like the change, and it has a very high "user-visible improvement to lines of code" ratio ;)

I left some design-oriented comments to various parts of the implementation.

During testing I found two small problems:

"Silent" does not work so well - in smaller games it causes super fast flash of black screen (e.g. in "PAKU PAKU 1.6", in others the delay is uncomfortably longer (Wolfenstein 3D when games starts with default 3000 cycles). Also, despite suppression of output, some text still slips in: empty lines injected by who-knows-what part of dosbox implementation, text printed by DOS4/GW, DOS32/A, or the game itself…
Running dosbox path/to/dir (which triggers mounting directory as C) should trigger instant launch as well.

About (1) - I think we could leave this option in as it is, without redesing and improve it in future iterations / PRs.

About (2) - this should be a rather easy fix, I think?

src/misc/setup.cpp

src/misc/support.cpp

src/shell/shell.cpp

src/shell/shell_misc.cpp

src/dosbox.cpp

include/control.h

kcgen · 2020-07-02T22:22:48Z

Changes are in.

About (1) - I think we could leave this option in as it is, without redesigning and improve it in future iterations / PRs.

I like this step-wise approach; looking forward to more refinement!

About (2) - this should be a rather easy fix, I think?

It was just a couple lines, and working very nicely. Great suggestion @dreamer!

With this directory addition, auto lets me launch dosbox . or dosbox /some/dir very quickly and naturally, like spawning another Xterm (that just happens to be a DOS-interpreter)!

With this mental "startup weight" lifted, staging feels like a general tool for Linux and CLI users, and I now see myself using DOS CLI tools or MOD / MP3 players naturally into my daily workflow. This dovetails very nicely with LFN support!

dreamer

Nice :) And I'm glad you mentioned a new feature in README.

I left some additional comments, but at this point it's only polishing the code.

I performed some tests and in all cases I tried, the feature behaved according to user expectations :)

src/misc/setup.cpp

src/misc/support.cpp

src/misc/programs.cpp


        Add and use an is_executable_filename() support function


        Let CommandLine inidicate if it was passed an executable filename


        Let CommandLine inidicate if it was passed a directory


        Add a configurable "Startup Verbosity" setting

[dosbox] startup_verbosity = high # medium, low, quiet, auto Also adds a GetStartupVerbosity() getter to the control class, so we can query this from various places. This commit is dormant though - no code uses it.


        Add startup Verbosity::High as pre-req for the Splash


        Add startup Verbosity::Medium as pre-req for the Welcome banner


        Add startup Verbosity::Low as pre-req for stdout prior to executable

Verbosity::Quiet suppresses stdout prior launching an executable.


        List Startup Verbosity in README's table of differences

dreamer

Great feature; I will merge it in momentarily :)

dreamer · 2020-07-05T11:20:51Z

src/dosbox.cpp

@@ -444,6 +445,18 @@ void DOSBOX_Init(void) {
 	secprop->AddInitFunction(&TIMER_Init);//done
 	secprop->AddInitFunction(&CMOS_Init);//done

+	const char *verbosity_choices[] = {"high",   "medium", "low",
+	                                   "quiet", "auto",   0};
+	Pstring = secprop->Add_string("startup_verbosity", only_at_start, "high");


Nitpick: Pstring -> pstring (but it's minor I will merge it in anyway).

dreamer · 2020-07-05T11:22:29Z

And it's in; thanks @kcgen :)

kcgen mentioned this pull request Jul 2, 2020

Implement instant launch! #415

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kcgen changed the title ~~Controls dosbox's verbosity prior to displaying the program~~ Control the startup verbosity, prior to displaying the program Jul 2, 2020

kcgen changed the title ~~Control the startup verbosity, prior to displaying the program~~ Make startup verbosity configurable Jul 2, 2020

kcgen requested a review from dreamer Jul 2, 2020

kcgen self-assigned this Jul 2, 2020

kcgen added the enhancement label Jul 2, 2020

kcgen linked an issue that may be closed by this pull request Jul 2, 2020

Implement instant-launch #139

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dreamer added this to In progress in 0.76.0 release Jul 5, 2020

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Add and use an is_executable_filename() support function

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Let CommandLine inidicate if it was passed a directory

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Add startup Verbosity::High as pre-req for the Splash

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Verbosity::Quiet suppresses stdout prior launching an executable.

List Startup Verbosity in README's table of differences

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Make startup verbosity configurable #477

Make startup verbosity configurable #477

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Make startup verbosity configurable #477

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kcgen commented Jul 2, 2020 • edited

'high' startup verbosity is default

'auto' startup verbosity is available

What is pre-executable stdout?

How are batch files handled with 'silent' startup verbosity?

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