MAME debugger feature requests (don't lock file and reload ROM when changed)

[tbsp]

I'm looking into developing for the Bally Astrocade, using mame as my emulator/debugger. First I want to say thank you very much for emulating this system at all and all the hard work that goes into mame!

Unfortunately once a ROM is loaded the file is locked from writing, and the process to rebuild/reload a ROM has quite a few steps. This leads to the following build cycle:

• Media menu -> Cartridge -> Unmount (to allow the ROM to be overwritten)
• I rebuild my ROM via my build system
• Media menu -> Cartridge -> Mount file...
• Choose file
• The window/debugger now reset to their default locations (and must be resized/re-positioned as desired)

In a perfect world this would be replaced with (with the ROM already loaded/running):

• I rebuild my ROM via my build system
• Mame detects the file changing (likely just via modified timestamp) and reloads it, retaining the windows in their present locations

I've looked around the code a bit, and it looks like the cartridge ROM file being locked could be because it's treated as a cassette, and potentially could be written to, so the file handle is kept open.

[FoxhackDN]

Do it from the command line.

mame astrocde -cart path\to\cart -debug

When you're done testing, you quit MAME, rebuild your game, then run the command line again. It won't help you with the debug window position, but it'll shave a few steps off.

Edit: By the way, reloading the cart like you suggest isn't possible IIRC. Loading a new cartridge force resets the system, and that includes all debugging windows. So you can't just swap it out for a new one while it's turned on and keep everything in place.

[tbsp]

I'd also been doing it that way, but was hoping by staying in the same mame instance I might stand a hope of retaining the window positions and watchpoints.

Even just releasing the handle on the file would allow me to reduce my steps to:

• Rebuild with Mame still running
• Media menu -> Cartridge -> Mount file...
• Choose file

Of course if the windows will reset anyways very little has been gained and I might as well just stick to using command-line launching. Thanks!

[rb6502]

In case you have one around, the MacOS version of MAME does save and restore the debugger window configuration between runs.

[tbsp]

I do have an 11 year old macbook pro around. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

[cuavas]

The Qt debugger saves its window configuration, too (it’s the default on Linux, and you can build with it included on Windows or macOS if you have the Qt SDK installed – see here for Windows instructions).

[tbsp]

Thanks for that tip! I'd already built it myself on Windows, but I'll give it a go again with Qt.

[cuavas]

As of c76cf75, the Win32 debugger also saves and restores its configuration, in a format that’s mostly compatible with the Cocoa (macOS) debugger.

[smf-]

Another alternative that might work: mame astrocde -exp rl64_ram -d and then: load rom.bin,5000 to load it into ram. You'll probably want to change the program counter each time you load, ie pc=5000 (or whatever you need)

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On 11/08/2022 19:19, Dave VanEe wrote: I'm looking into developing for the Bally Astrocade, using mame as my emulator/debugger. First I want to say thank you very much for emulating this system at all and all the hard work that goes into mame! Message ID: ***@***.***>