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When loading things in pico-8 without specifying a file extension, it searches for ".p8.png" files as well as ".p8" files.

It's only a few seconds time saved, but it adds up over time.

So in case I wasn't clear what I'm requesting is that when I type "load cart_name" it could look for both cart_name.p8 AND cart_name.p8.png files.

P#11210 2015-06-09 23:30 ( Edited 2015-06-10 22:43)

Those are both totally different file formats with pros and cons (one plain text file that can be edited externally, the other with a nice cover image). Being able to rename them just for the ease of use of loading within pico-8 would add a lot of confusion pretty much everywhere else.

I'd be much more happy with a bash like TAB auto completion, to be honest.

A workaround for now would be to use Pico-8 to convert the files -> load the p8.png and save it right away as .p8 again.

Cheers!
gizmo

P#11211 2015-06-10 08:28 ( Edited 2015-06-10 12:28)

I'm completely aware of how to load the p8.png files and resave them.

This is an unnecessary and time consuming step and why I made the post.

It's clear they are different file formats, but no so different that the Pico-8 cannot easily separate the code data from the image data. It is not my intention that one could cut off the .png and open the .p8 with ease in an external text editor and as such I've edited the title of this thread and my original post to reflect my true intentions.

My issue isn't so much with the inability to simply rename the file as it is, pico-8's inability to simply search for both file extensions when attempting to load a file name without an extension.

This makes importing cartridges tedious and that discourages people from working together or helping one another.

P#11214 2015-06-10 09:24 ( Edited 2015-06-10 13:26)

sure, I understand your intentions and agree.

But even if we leave renaming aside and zep would implement the loading behavior like you want it to be then you'd still have a problem in a scenario like this:
...
test.p8
test.p8.png
...

Which one should Pico-8 load?

That would be kind of similar to having a case insensitive file loader on a case sensitive operating system.

I'm still rooting for TAB auto completion :)

P#11215 2015-06-10 11:18 ( Edited 2015-06-10 15:18)

I see the conflict, but I do not see it as an issue.

I believe the default behavior in that scenario is straightforward, .p8 would always be the first loaded.

In fact, I very specifically think "test.p8.png" should only be looked for if it is first verified that "test.p8" does not exist.

My case is for brevity in rapid access, specifically of others' files. If you already have two files sharing a name, differing only by one being screenshot inclusive, then selecting the one you want specifically warrants the extra moment of typing.

((Also, I'm probably just anal but I definitely keep pngs and p8s in different directories to begin with.))

P#11216 2015-06-10 12:18 ( Edited 2015-06-10 16:18)

What might be even better is if PICO-8 could take a cartridge filename as a command-line argument and automatically load and run it; then you could just take the cartridge and "open with" PICO-8 using your OS's file browser. This way you wouldn't have to type anything to start a cart.

Bash-like tab completion would be nice too!

P#11217 2015-06-10 12:47 ( Edited 2015-06-10 16:47)

Yeah, command-line would be nice as well.
That could also allow for simple drag and drop stuff.

P#11218 2015-06-10 12:49 ( Edited 2015-06-10 16:49)

Being able to share cartridges easily (within pico-8 the application) is definitely something that needs to be improved in general. An additional possibility I'm leaning towards is allowing:
load _clip
which loads whatever is in the clipboard (in .p8 text or .png format)

It might also be an opportunity to add some merging/conflic logic so that it's possible for multiple users to work on a cart and submit patches without using git .p8 merges (although, you'd get all the other features of git which is nice).

Tab completion is wishlisted. I think this is a cleaner way to do it, because even if there is a well defined order of loading preference, it might get confusing and dangerous in cases like:

> LOAD BLAH
LOADED BLAH.PNG
> SAVE BLAH
SAVED BLAH.P8

Running carts as commands is interesting, especially if it's possible later to write custom utilities and tools. You would lose the cart in memory, but could still operate on whatever is in base memory. For example: compress_level map

Still not sure about this. It Might be a can of worms as it comes with many expectations that go along with having a bash-like shell!

Oh, and finally on the simpler end -- double-clicking a .p8.png to open in pico-8 is also on the todo list.

P#11226 2015-06-10 18:43 ( Edited 2015-06-10 23:08)

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