> What about putting all of the read-only files that are required by each MAME version > into some kind of a container format so that they are all bundled together into one > file? > > Java does this with "JAR" files. It groups class/properties files together into a > single file and there's a manifest file included that provides build and versioning > info. > > Or just compile them into the MAME EXE. Who really cares how big it is?
The linker cares unfortunately.
Also things like the lua scripts are meant to serve as external examples of how to do things; they're not very useful if they're internalized.
The bigger layouts are (IMHO) likely to end up external too, or part of the ROMsets (like the SVGs) but on current showing absolutely nobody can be trusted to update MAME properly.