Allow running fixdat without --input

[ozboss]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

igir's fixdat has the potential to replace the unfortunately unmaintained Retool in creating filtered .dat files.

Describe the solution you'd like

When running igir without --input i get the following error:

ERROR: Missing required argument for command fixdat: --input

It should not require --input as it could just simply create a .dat file with all the games that pass the filter would be given to the command.

Current workaround:
Create an empty folder and place any file into it (can just be an empty file). Provide this folder as --input to igir.

Together with #1347 I think it could replace Retool.

Additional context

No response

[emmercm]

RE: replacing Retool, I doubt Igir will come close. What made Retool special was its hand-maintained clone lists, which are going to be better than anything Igir can do with parent/clone inference.

But this is a good suggestion, this is in line with a change made to the report command a little while ago which no longer requires input files.

[ozboss]

Thanks for the link to the clone list, I was not aware that they are this extensive. Still I think depending on the p/c info is the correct approach. After all creating and maintaining the clone list is something the original author of Retool did regret as it takes away this responsibility from the authors of the DAT files.

Also thanks for considering my requested change.

[unexpectedpanda]

What made Retool special was its hand-maintained clone lists, which are going to be better than anything Igir can do with parent/clone inference.

I thought Retool's clone inference and auto-prioritization was pretty special, too ;)

After all creating and maintaining the clone list is something the original author of Retool did regret as it takes away this responsibility from the authors of the DAT files.

More accurately: it was a necessary evil. Parent/clone tags by themselves aren't up to the task of providing proper 1G1R. It'd be lovely if it was addressed at the source, but that's not going to happen for either No-Intro or Redump, so it's up to client software to fill the gap.

[ozboss]

@unexpectedpanda thank you for your incredible work on Retool! I completely respect your decision to step down from the project. It is important to prioritize your well-being.
That said, I don't think its helpful to suggest other projects to take on the same burden that burned you out.

Have you had any discussions with the No-Intro team about improving the DAT file situation? It would be great to hear your thoughts on how this could be handled better at the source, without the need for tool like Retool or igir to fill those gaps.

[unexpectedpanda]

thank you for your incredible work on Retool!

Cheers, I'm glad you found it useful.

That said, I don't think its helpful to suggest other projects to take on the same burden that burned you out.

There's no suggestion intended, and to be clear, I don't recommend that path at all as a single maintainer. It's just a statement of reality that if people want decent 1G1R, a third party tool that supplies extra data is needed to handle it at this point in time. Parent/clone and some form of inference provides a more maintainable approximation, but the corner cases add up.

Have you had any discussions with the No-Intro team about improving the DAT file situation?

Sadly the sources aren't going to change. Redump's admin is largely absent, so the backend isn't going to be updated to add new features. I had discussions with some No-Intro people some time ago, which got an addition to the wiki, but there's no real hunger to push it forward or mess with the ancient DAT format, let alone chase the different parties down the ROM management chain to enable the functionality. They have their hands full with other things.

Have you had any discussions with the No-Intro team about improving the DAT file situation? It would be great to hear your thoughts on how this could be handled better at the source, without the need for tool like Retool or igir to fill those gaps.

Build a platform to replace No-Intro and Redump that does things right and keeps the data at the source. This isn't particularly sensible to pursue, and among other things comes with considerable maintenance costs. You could attempt to crowdsource the info if you built the right tool, but that's taking things away from the source again and forever playing catch up.

At any rate, I'm just here to give additional context around 1G1R complexities. I'm mindful that I'm leaning in on Christian's project and that this thread should remain about IGIR, so I should probably make myself scarce :)