From: quake AT megsinet DOT net (exph)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Advice needed: displaying many pcx images for emulator front end
Message-ID: <381787e8.11350866@news.anet.com>
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Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 23:26:18 GMT
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

I am currently making a simple front end for mame as a project to
increase my knowledge of allegro and djgpp. I assume most of you know
what a front end is but for those who don't a front end(at least for
emulators) is a program that lists all of the games you have and you
pick wich one you want to play. Much easier than having to fool with
command lines. I know there are many high quality front ends already
out but I want to make this one myself for fun. My question is how
should I go about showing pcx screen shots for the games when you have
one highlighted? If I read the pcx from the hard drive every time I
need one you won't be able to navigate the menu smoothly because the
disk will be thrashing. Mame runs just under 2000 games now so there
is no way I can load that many screen shots into memory. Should I
cache as many screen shots as memory allows and just read the hard
drive when I need one that isn't cached? Help! One other quick
question. Would it be better to shell to mame or to simply terminate
my program and have it run once mame is done with a simple batch file?
Does shelling  decrease mames performance? For those of you who have
gotten down to this point thank you very much for taking the time to
read this ;-). 
exph