HUB2: A new MSX HUB Client for MSX2 with a (hopefully) user friendly UI!

By ducasp

Paladin (712)

04-04-2020, 02:27

Here is a nice presentation of HUB2 running:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVrhVqS_uPY

This is a MSX HUB client that has a few advantages over the command line client version of MSX HUB by fr3nd:

It has an intuitive user interface, so you do not need to keep calling HUB several times (one to list groups, another to list packages in that group, another to install)
It is fully compatible with HUB (but it doesn't use HUB.COM, it is a stand-alone application), so, if you install it in the same folder you have HUB.COM installed, you are good to go from where you left, no need to uninstall or re-install anything :) You can use HUB at any time, all information is compatible between both clients, so using HUB2 do not require you to abandon HUB
It won't scroll over lines and lines of text over the screen when you request info from a package. It will show the information page by page, waiting your input when you want to continue reading (if the information spans over more than one screen)
You don't have to input any command line option, just HUB2.COM

There are a few trade-offs:

Search functionality of HUB command line client is not implemented
It supports up to 100 packages locally installed. If you have more than 100 packages it won't list anything over 100 in the Local Operations menu
It supports up to 25 groups being listed by MSX HUB. Anything over 25 will not be listed (currently MSX HUB has 9 groups available), each group name should not be over 16 characters long (currently the longest group name is Programming, 11 characters long)
It supports up to 70 packages in each category, any package over 70 in a given group won't be listed
A MSX2 or better is required
Hey, it is a brand new program, I've tested it, but HUB has been tested way longer than this, so HUB2 might have bugs... Report them at my github ( www.github.com/ducasp )

Where to download it? Hopefully soon it will be available at MSX HUB as HUB2 and you can type HUB INSTALL HUB2, meanwhile, you can get it from my github:

https://github.com/ducasp/MSX-Development/blob/master/UNAPI/...

Source code avaible as well:

https://github.com/ducasp/MSX-Development/tree/master/UNAPI/...

Hope you all enjoy it! ;)

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By raymond

Hero (653)

04-04-2020, 09:36

Sounds good. Will give it a try this weekend!

By ToriHino

Paladin (925)

04-04-2020, 09:44

Yes this looks great, for sure will try this as well

By fr3nd

Expert (112)

04-04-2020, 18:29

That's awesome! I've tested it and it works very well. I've just sent you an email to discuss a couple of things but it will definitely be available very soon in MSXHub to download

By Manuel

Ascended (19677)

05-04-2020, 00:23

Great work!

Although I haven't used the software, I would like to propose another control scheme which I think might be more intuitive to use:
- instead of using number keys, use a highlight (bar) to select an item in a list. Move up and down to change highlight/selection. Then use left and right to change page.
- use TAB to change the focus of the cursor

Just some ideas...

Does the local MSXHUB remember the installation path for each package?

Perhaps it would be nice to configure somewhere where to install each package, per package type. Not everyone has such large disks. E.g. I would like my games on drive C:, tools on drive D:, etc. Just an idea for HUB itself.

By ducasp

Paladin (712)

05-04-2020, 00:56

Manuel wrote:

Great work!

Just some ideas...

Does the local MSXHUB remember the installation path for each package?

Hi Manuel, thanks for the feedback.

About using arrows and tab to shift focus, I think it would be a lot slower, i. e. : I have chosen a group and now to install the tenth game in the current page I would have to hit a tab and down arrow 9 times... But if general feedback says otherwise, I'll be glad to implement what most people like....

Yes, hub remember where each package was installed, and allow you to individually choose for each game (hub you can type HUB INSTALL XRACING C:\GAMES and HUB2 you can keep shift pressed while choosing S to install and then type c:\games) and also to assign a different folder as the default installation (usually it is the root of the drive where hub is, so XRACING would install in C:\XRACING) by setting an environment variable PROGSDIR, so if PROGSDIR=B:\PACKS, XRACING would install in B:\PACKS\XRACING...

Having a different install folder for each group is a good idea and I'll make sure to implement it both in HUB and HUBG (fr3nd and I have talked and agreed that HUBG would be a better name as it is not a follow up to HUB but HUB in a "graphic" presentation / interface (I honestly thought as HUB for MSX2 as this version requires a MSX2 or better ????).

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4289)

05-04-2020, 08:37

Why not allow both entering a number as well as using arrow keys for selecting, gives people who prefer it the opportunity and other people use the keyboard ‘shortcut’. Hey, you could even add mouse support

By fr3nd

Expert (112)

05-04-2020, 11:02

Quote:

Does the local MSXHUB remember the installation path for each package?

Yes it does, and not only this, HUBG (or HUB2 as you prefer) and HUB both use the same database so an application installed with HUB can also be managed with HUBG and the other way around.

Quote:

As Ducasp perfectly explained this feature is already implemented in both clients. Maybe I should have documented it better, as this seems to be unknown for most people

By Manuel

Ascended (19677)

05-04-2020, 12:18

fr3nd: I understoond from ducacp that he found it a good idea and that it should be implemented

By fr3nd

Expert (112)

05-04-2020, 13:07

Ok, I see I didn't understand your original suggestion. I mixed the possibility to individually select the install location with the option to install each package to a different location depending on the package type. Sorry about that!

It's a good idea indeed, but I'm not sure how it could be implemented. I'm very interested to see what's Ducasp opinion on that.

By ducasp

Paladin (712)

05-04-2020, 13:48

fr3nd wrote:

It's a good idea indeed, but I'm not sure how it could be implemented. I'm very interested to see what's Ducasp opinion on that.

Pretty easy for HUBG as it is already group driven (you first need to select a group, then you are going to install the package knowing the group), so you can have a different environment variable set with each group name, if it is set use that path. (example: SET HUB GAMES = C:\GAMES)

For HUB, perhaps you could make a command in the api that would retrieve the group name a given package is part of... As hub just knows the package name during install, it would make it a lot easier to implement and have a better performance than grabbing the full package info and parsing it on the msx.