> I get these messages; > Issue: Can't merge set due to equal names for different ROM hashes > Press yes to remove parent/clone relationship or no to force split-merge mode. > > and... > Issue: Possible wrong nodump definition found > A valid checksum for it within its parent/clone relationship was found though. > Insert found checksum instead of using the 'nodump'? > > I always answer 'No' to force split-merge mode and 'No' to use 'nodump'. Should I be > putting 'Yes' to all and can you please explain why that is better than the way I > have been doing it?
These popups when loading profiles are a large portion of confusion/annoyance sources in cmpro. Maybe they should be relegated to a "special cases" menu that isn't shown normally, with a default to the normal way to do things:
Split sets.
In particular, no conflict between reused names appearing in parent and clone, because actual ROM files will be segregated into split sets.
Don't replace nodump ROMs with parent files of the same names: the definitions are 99.99% not "possibly wrong" and the files aren't used anyway.
Treat sample-only sets as sample-only sets (why is it even a warning?), perhaps marking and listing them as such in the appropriate places.
The strange warnings about multiple roms with the same name and wrong merge tags don't involve any user choice (except deciding to avoid using a defective profile or to file a MAME bug), while seriously adding to the WTF factor: listing these special occurrences and others (like sample-only sets) in an easily ignored summary screen at the end of profile loading (similar to the one at the end of scanning) would be nicer.
Ideally, listxml loading should be completed without being interrupted to ask largely pointless questions whose answers should be part of the profile definition (with options such as "ignore sample-only sets" or "what to do if homonymy makes merged sets impossible").