[Coco] MESS needs a C++ programmer dedicated to the Coco

[Roger Taylor]

At 08:57 AM 5/1/2011, you wrote:
>As you users of MESS know, changes come so fast that our portion of 
>the emulation gets lost in the dust. There apparently no longer is 
>anyone on the MESS team that spends any significant time on Coco 
>emulation unless there is a major crash. As a result, the most 
>recent versions of MESS don't work as well as older ones. 
>Unfortunately, older versions are missing some of the corrections 
>found in more recent versions.
>
>As Tveo's recent message demonstrates there are Coco enthusiasts who 
>can handle the MESS source code. I, for one, can't so am unable to 
>make some of the changes/corrections currently needed.
>For example, if you mount a custom disk ROM in the cart slot, it 
>prevents disk I/O or the smartwatch functions from working. The fdc 
>index bit reporting for type I and IV commands no longer works. MESS 
>no longer permits ignoring ROMs with crc's that don't match the 
>standards built into the driver code. We need support for acceptance 
>of new entries in the hash files .hsi or .xml so that custom disk 
>ROMs or even game paks no on these lists can be used.
>
>Any takers? There is a MESS BBS at
>http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1


Although I use the emulator a lot in my IDEs, I use VCC more for 
casual use because it's just makes more sense to launch a more 
compact and friendly emulator.

After trying to keep up with their updates for probably 8 to 10 years 
now, I'm convinced that the M.E.S.S. team couldn't have picked a more 
accurate name for the system.  I can't complain about what all it 
does for free but when you start seeing performance decrease while 
PC's keep getting more memory and becoming much faster, I just don't 
get it.  I think part of the problem is contributor burnout.  What 
started out being a team of a few geeks became a large unorganized 
team of contributors.  If everyone isn't on the same page at all 
times, things fall apart.

At some point you have to ask yourself, why use M.E.S.S. on a casual 
basis when VCC is a much more pleasant experience.

Speaking of VCC... it needs command line arguments so we can launch 
it from an IDE with virtual disks or ROMs mounted.

-- 
~ Roger Taylor