Windows/Console

Windows Console - Blessing or Curse?

Currently, Windows Release Builds (1.2.0 and earlier) open a console window in addition to the normal ScummVM GUI window.

This window is not the drop down debug console (CTRL-D), but the command line DOS style window which shows stdout messages i.e. debug() and warning().

There is a perennial argument as to whether this is a good or a bad thing, mainly with respect to novice Windows users?

This page exists to collect the arguments on both sides and to record counterarguments, so that:
a) a decision can be reached on this which all interested developers can be satisfied with.
b) the reasons and arguments for the decision can be minuted, such that the perennial argument can be avoided in the future, unless the reasons given here can be shown to have evolved.

Log files can be used instead of the console window, which can be erased every time ScummVM starts. Ideally, we could have a "Submit" button which the user can click on to submit unknown checksums.

Pros (Arguments For Hiding The Console Window)

• Most Windows applications do not display a console window.
• Unknown games can be reported with a nice popup GUI window, and the game checksums in question can be exported to a file, which the user can copy and paste to a bug report
• Sometimes, when ScummVM crashes unexpectedly, the program exits completely, and the user loses the error in question. This doesn't happen with a log file.
• Users need to restart ScummVM, to get more feedback, when bugs or issues occur and they haven't copied/pasted the relevant information from the console, and might not even be able to reproduce the bug/issue.

Cons (Arguments Against Hiding The Console Window

• How do we report unknown games, or games with missing files to users?
• Many of the current warnings (i.e. loading related, missing code or features) in source code, can provide useful feedback to users.
  • I disagree, most users don't care about the warnings that we throw. Most warnings are very confusing/cryptic for the user anyway, and the critical ones should be replaced with some sort of GUI popup, when possible - Md5
• If a known issue occurs, but isn't suitable for GUI feedback, then users lose that information.
  • For example: Original bugs in games based of AGOS game engine, can cause a few wait timeouts, which can make ScummVM appear as locked up.
    • Yes, but noone notices the console in this case anyway - Md5
• A single log file can easily be overwritten, if a user relies solely on logs for reporting bugs or issues. This is exactly the same situation with console windows, though.
  • Multiple logs would lead to more confusion, about which file to submit, if that method was used.
• If a toggle is added for opening/closing the console window (showing all previous output), users will be dumped back to the desktop. And jumping back into ScummVM can result in further issues, of screen going out of sync or crash, with poor display drivers.
  • Hiding a window is a standard procedure in Windows. If a user has such a badly broken graphics driver, then this will be the least of his problems, nothing will work properly - Md5
• The current option is inconsistent, when starting directly (no console), compared to starting via a command prompt (console used, and prompt not returned). The standard behavior of GUI only programs, is to return the prompt straight away, if started by a command prompt.
  • This already happens with the currently submitted patch by m_kiewitz - Md5