Editors that can save config files directly to the Retrode

[Neelix]

Would it in any way be possible to set aside a small "temporary storage" location in whatever memory is left over, that is cleared every time the retrode is plugged in; save any file written to the filesystem, regardless of the name, in that (obviously reporting disk full if it exceeds the available space), but constantly check the directory listing to see if any files are named RETRODE.CFG, and if so read them and replace the config? Or am I ridiculously overthinking things, and that would be really hard?

On that note, Would it perhaps be possible to tune the virtual file system to let the OS think its writing to a new file, but direct it to the same memory space if the name matches?

- Neelix

[Matthias_H]

@Muzer: Good idea but there's simply not enough memory for that. Mind you, the Retrode is already hallucinating a 128MB file system using only 3500 bytes of RAM. Right now, there are about 600 bytes left; not  enough to even hold a single config file, let alone a whole chunk of SRAM data. The next major firmware revision will likely involve a desperate attempt at data compression, but I doubt it will free enough space to allow for such things.

@Neelix: Won't work because typically, first the data is written - then the file system entry (i.e., the name) is created. So we'd have to deal with the data before we even know what it's good for.

[Matthias_H]

Actually, I just got kate and nano to work under SuSE 11.4. Both required deactivation of backups (instructions added to list)

[Muzer]

Nano works already for me - must be the defaults in SuSE being rubbish. Never liked that distro

[Neelix]

I added nedit (failed) and leafpad (successful) to the list.

@Matthias: good call on the formatting :-)

- Neelix

[Matthias_H]

Just found out that vim under Mac OS X does in fact work! Backups need to be disabled first:

Code: [Select]

echo "set nobackup" >> ~/_vimrc
echo "set nowritebackup" >> ~/_vimrc
echo "set noswapfile" >> ~/_vimrc


[matt]

TextMate on Mac OS X can save the file but it disappears from Finder afterwards and you need to reset the Retrode to get it to reappear. But the change is saved.

Personally, I prefer to use pico from the command line.

[Neelix]

Cheers!   
I've added TextMate and pico to the list for Mac OS X.

- Neelix

[matt]

pico is an ancestor of nano

[Neelix]

So to clarify, are you actually using  the earlier version pico, or are you using nano, and calling it pico out of force of habit? 

(on my system,  I can type nano or pico, and I get nano 2.2.2 either way. )

Keep in mind I'm not really familiar enough with MacOS X to know what versions of what tools are included.

- Neelix

[matt]

Good point, I never realised.

I type pico and get nano (2.0.6)

[sheepeeh]

What, no Windows editors?!

I've successfully saved the CFG file using Cream/vim in Win7.

http://cream.sourceforge.net/

[Matthias_H]

Windows tends to be slightly less of a pain as far as media swapping and writing is concerned. I have no problems with Windows Notepad and Notepad++ (backup copies disabled) either, under XP Pro SP3.