Please resolve the auto load issue in all browsers

[mcfilmmakers]

The emualtor help page states that the below error only happens in Chrome:

When launching the ccemu.html file with the ccemu.html?cd0=../disks/airraid.ccvf&auto=1 suffix, the page loads with an error. You can then select the game in the disk and press auto to get the game running.

However, this occurs in ALL browsers, including Firefox which the help page says it shouldn't be an issue and runs fine. This issue is the only thing stopping me from using the emulator since it requires manually loading games rather than being able to launch straight into a game.

Are there any plans to resolve this issue?

[jtbattle]

mcfilmmakers -- thanks for reporting the issue. I've only ever written one javascript program in my life, and it is the CCII emulator. I haven't modified it in at least five years. Most likely there has been bitrot as browsers have evolved a lot over the past five years or so. I hope to find the time some day to refresh the code to work with all modern browsers, but I don't have any estimate for when that might happen.

[mcfilmmakers]

I hope that happens sooner than later, it really is a great emulator and that issue is the one thing stopping me from using it (because from there I can launch from a frontend). Best wishes to you!

[mcfilmmakers]

I was curious about something. ccemu.html line 158 refers to a file maly8080.js but this file isn't in the package. Why? I get an error because the file isn't found.

[jtbattle]

Huh, that is interesting. The 8080 CPU code was taken from Chris Double's website (with his permission) and I modified it somewhat, mostly in the disassembler. Another person (Martin Maly) had also taken that same code base and made his own tweaks to it. It was 7 years ago that I wrote the emulator -- I suspect what happened was I experimented with using Martin Maly's version instead of my modified version of the emulator to see how things would run, but then forgot to remove that extra line.

[jtbattle]

mcfilmmakers -- I think I know what is going on. I just tried the emulator where it is hosted on the web, at https://compucolor.org/emu/ccemu.html

Scripts can be loaded and disk images can be mounted and used. The problem arises when you try to run the emulator on the local filesystem. I haven't tried in years, but I did just now and see what you are seeing. What used to work in Firefox no longer works. I believe it is due to a shifting emphasis on exactly what privileges a javascript program may have. Previously Firefox supported reading the local file system, but now it doesn't. Perhaps it was replaced by a different API that didn't exist when I wrote the emulator.

After a quick search, I found an article that confirms this -- browsers disallow local file access, even reading due to security concerns. Apparently the fix is to set up a local apache server on the machine and then the javascript can do http file requests through the server, and the server itself does the file fetching and returns it to the program. I'm not sure if there is an easier way, but I haven't looked into it.

[mcfilmmakers]

Thank you. I'll look into this as a potential solution.