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Add support for Antonio's manufacturer metadata in engine ini files #425
Description
Summary
Add optional manufacturer metadata to retro.ini:
; Manufacturer: Mephisto
Example:
; Manufacturer: Mephisto
[mame/academy]
name = Mephisto Academy
small = academ
medium = Academy
large = Mep.Academy
elo = 1980
The manufacturer applies to subsequent engine sections until another manufacturer directive appears.
Menu behavior
When manufacturer directives exist:
Engine → Retro → Manufacturer → Engine → Level
When none exist, preserve the current flat menu:
Engine → Retro → Engine → Level
Existing users must not see an additional Other or Various menu. In partially grouped files, ungrouped entries may be placed under Other.
Manufacturer order and engine order should follow their order in retro.ini.
Implementation
- Parse manufacturer metadata centrally in
uci/read.py. - Include
manufacturerin each parsed retro-engine dictionary. - Do not parse
retro.iniagain fromdgt/menu.py. - Only recognize the strict syntax
; Manufacturer: <name>. - Ignore ordinary comments.
- Only apply manufacturer parsing to
retro.ini. - Preserve existing engine indexes
Activity
github-actions commentedon Jun 22, 2026
Issue Agent could not generate
specification.mdwithout open questions.Please clarify:
JohanSjoblom commentedon Jun 22, 2026
When you chose the menu option Engines -> Retro you should see a list of manufacturers before choosing the actual engine. It will present the manufacturer metadata as an extra sub-menu
JohanSjoblom commentedon Jul 25, 2026
The user should be allowed to use any metadata they want, it does not have to be manufacturer. But lets leave the support as just one additional level in the menu.
Furthermore the user needs a way to configure the list to be sorted alphabetically, either by manufacturer metadata or by the name of the engine. That should be an option the user can set. It could be solved by a new field in the uci file at the top of the file, or as a setting in the picochess.ini file, or...?
JohanSjoblom commentedon Jul 25, 2026
I will make both book listings always order alphabetically. Both the Engine Book, and the BOOK tab that is only for the user to look at any book. The BOOK tab will be changed from the old left-right arrows to a modern menu picker.
JohanSjoblom commentedon Jul 25, 2026
Here is my retro.ini with manufacturer sub-levels for reference... This file worked for me.
retro.txt
As you can see for instance, just before the Boris engines you find the metadata:
; Manufacturer: Chafitz/Applied Concepts