Had a brainstorm.

[Tom Speirs]

In order to avoid the misconceptions around new features being the cause of bloat.

I thought I would create a new theme 'Default - Lite' which would disable everything not related to MAME and emulation, and show just a flat start menu.

I really would like to stress this again, its getting me frustrated (as you can tell ). I am not stating I will not work on optimizing GameEx but if the multimedia features and HTML apps are not enabled, they will not be loaded into memory.

What are your thoughts on the theme?

[Hotshot]

It would make it look "cleaner" for people who have no use for the DVD or Jukebox, or don't wish to use GameEx for anything but Mame.

A lot of people (myself included) still read about GameEx as being a pure Mame frontend on a lot of outdated Mame sites, so things get hairy when they learn it comes with a bunch of stuff they don't want/need.

[jjnet2005]

Hi everyone

I been reading about how some say GameEx is bloated etc

and that they want a version of GameEx just for mame and nothing else.

well I have this to say, there are many other Mame frontends out there

that are dedicated to mame. Try mameWah for example, its a great front end for mame

and you can also run all your other emulators if you so choose to

So if you are worried about GameEx being bloated, then try MameWah or something else

http://mamewah.mameworld.net/

and if one doesnt need a feature in GameEx, then disable it, its that simple

I do not see any reason why Tom should be working on 2 vesrions of GameEx

Like I said, there are many other Frontends out there that will suit ones needs

No one is forced to use GameEx or any other frontend

If one doesnt like it then Make your own and see how difficult a job it is to do

I think we should all be thankful for what Tom has created

he deservse praise for his hard work and dedication to GameEx

Tom, keep up the good work, this is truely a great Frontend

Im sure most people are appreciative of what you have achieved thus far

we thank you for your dedication to GameEx

Tom, GameEx is your creation and you do what you want to it,

don't let others talk you into cutting things out, just to suit their needs.

Any problems we encounter, you quickly do your best to help us. Thank you

And we thank you that you have freely shared GameEx with us.

GameEx Rocks

[djrobx]

If you're just trying to prove a point, wouldn't it be easier to release an unofficial binary with the purported "bloat" features comented out, and let users see for themselves that it makes no difference. But why even do that; just leave things as-is and let people choose something else if GameEx isn't meeting their needs.

I just don't think the issue is worth that much work and frustration. There's two threads that seem to be about bloat, the one you've pinned and the "petition". Out of those two threads I see only two people complaining and a lot of people countering with a lot of support for you to leave things the way they are. And I think David's issue regarding CPU usage is solved by changing config option anyway!

I've stated my observations that yeah, it does seem like there's some room for speed improvement at boot-time, so I can sort of see why people have concerns about bloat, but as far as I'm concerned I'm totally thrilled with the program the way that it is, and I think I've made that pretty clear. If I haven't, then I'm repeating it for good measure!

Just keep doing what makes you happy.

-- Rob

[Capp]

Being a new user to the MAME scene I found that GameEx was the easiest and found the features in it to be excellent.

I'd say that if ppl are finding some things in the program not up to their liking, just disable it, or do go and find another Emulator out there that does service what their needs are