D040 - GUI is library-first; Inspect before Launch

decided · 2026-08-19

Large window defaulting to a configured library folder; selecting a title acts on it; menu strip with graphics/sound/input configuration stored in the user profile.

The library view needs only phase 1. Listing titles and showing a per-title import report - "needs 412 functions, we have 37" - requires the container parser and nothing else: no memory manager, no threads, no renderer. So the GUI is useful long before anything boots, and it surfaces the honest metric rather than a fake progress bar.

GUI is therefore two pieces of work, not one: shell plus library right after phase 1, and output surface at phase 6. Settings menus exist structurally from the first, with panes populated as the subsystems behind them land rather than built as dead UI.

Per-title action is Inspect now; Launch appears once phase 4 can honour it.