Just an idea: standards of homebrew

I was thinking, it seems kinda odd how there aren't generic things that are found in every homebrew. You know how most Nintendo apps have the homebutton menu? Or how on PCs programs that allow you to open a file come with some sort of standard file browser? That's kind of what I'm getting at.
For example, there are a bunch of Wii apps that browse the SD card's file system. There should be a standard SD card browser with a Libwiisprite GUI, and the function would return the file path for the file selected. It would be something you would be able to cut-and-past into your source code. I think that this would REALLY help devs out there, as they wouldn't have to code their own things, as they would just have to use a standard one.
For another example, there should be a standard Wiimote cursor that is persistent for all apps that use the IR pointer to browse through a menu.
And last and totally least, there should be a standard home(brew)button menu. It would work by using an interrupt, and would include the following options on it:
Return to Loader
App info(and there would be a instructions.xml file that would serve as the app's "enclosed instruction book".)
Return to app
Reset Wii
Power off.

Again, these are just ideas. It doesn't really have to be done. If anyone wants to do this, then go ahead! If no one wants to, then let this thread die.

Well, I'm all for standards that ensure basic and consistent functionality, like how F1 is basically hard-coded to the help file in Windows. However, I think what you are suggesting would not be in the best interest of the homebrew scene.

Wii homebrew seems to be just inherently poorly documented. As such, the way we have to learn to do things is by actually doing them. Most people's first exposure to interfacing with the controllers is through an IF statement that checks for the Home button being pressed and returns to the Homebrew Channel. I haven't even gotten to the point of working with remote IR, but I'm guessing one should start off navigating menus before jumping into programming a game with it. Sure, new programmers could just look at the standardized code to figure it out, but that's no substitute for actually doing it, and then modifying it to suit individual needs.

If someone has the spare time to write standardized functions for those things, I would much rather they write a tutorial to teach everyone else ;)

I do believe a functioning home menu that actually mimics the feel and function of the real one would benefit basically every app. Trying to force standards on amateur programmers and enthusiasts though is kind of doomed to failure.

Perhaps a set of suggested guidelines and resources to meet those guidelines however would not be. It would be nice to have a set of libraries for handling things like the home menu, IR tracking and averaging, gesture recognition, any other thing that is common and modular. Aside from a home menu though, there isn't a whole lot of need for most of these for most apps.

As far as help files are concerned, why not just use HTML and build a simplified renderer for it? That would work fine as far as help files are concerned and it has the added benefit of just about everything in the world being able to act as a wysiwyg editor for it.

The only "standard" you can really have is using HOME to return to a games menu, or to quit.

Quote
DimensionWarped
I do believe a functioning home menu that actually mimics the feel and function of the real one would benefit basically every app. Trying to force standards on amateur programmers and enthusiasts though is kind of doomed to failure.

Perhaps a set of suggested guidelines and resources to meet those guidelines however would not be. It would be nice to have a set of libraries for handling things like the home menu, IR tracking and averaging, gesture recognition, any other thing that is common and modular. Aside from a home menu though, there isn't a whole lot of need for most of these for most apps.

As far as help files are concerned, why not just use HTML and build a simplified renderer for it? That would work fine as far as help files are concerned and it has the added benefit of just about everything in the world being able to act as a wysiwyg editor for it.

That's exactly what I mean! Other libraries could also have an SD-Card explorer, like the one that you would find in SNES9x GX or FCE Ultra GX ect. ect.

So .... go code something up (and don't forget to release source and give it a clean API).

and documentation / helpfiles

Already exists actually, see [code.google.com] . I just saw it on DCemu a while back and remembered it when I saw this topic, no relation to whoever coded it.

Looks like vapor to me. No code in SVN, a source drop with no license attached, no updates in 3 months. :(

The "WiiHomeMenu" project was based on Grrlib. Notice the owner of that project is bmic.
There's a video preview of it, in all its System Menu-imitating glory.
Not worth much.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2008 02:15AM by tona.