scummvm/scummvm — comment on commit 65c60ef02737f9e6a7e4091b622a6a1e0871d6d7
File:  line 0
By fingolfin:

Actually, I think this new documentation partially misrepresents the purpose and consequences of singleid! For example, in some engines, it is necessary to have multiple ids, as the gameid is at most used as a "hint" to detect which game is in question. I.e. no extra functionality is gained from having multiple gameids exposed on the detector level. As such, I don't see why it is an "evil".

It is true, however, that it would be good to have a field that clearly and reliably indicates which engine is responsible for a given target. This has been discussed on -devel in the past, and I suggested to add an engineid field for that, but people did not like it. I am a bit fuzzy on the details, but recommend a search through the list archives. One of the counter arguments (IIRC) was that it wouldn't be reliable, since existing user config data would of course not contain it. But I think this isn't really an argument, as one could gradually transition to the new scheme...

Anyway, make sure to look at *all* engines before you make major changes to this, as they have quite different needs. And I also recommend taking a step back and viewing the whole situation, and perhaps making a more radical change to the whole system.