Contents
Version 2.0

Copyright © 1993-1995 M. M. S. All Rights Reserved.

This software is provided as shareware, and thus requires registration after a reasonable evaluation period.

Startup Summary

Introduction	Compatibility	Tutorial
Concepts and Use

Albums	Animated Icon	Tips
Window Anatomy

Main Menu

Album	Song	Options
Help
System Menu	Buttons	Mouse
Keyboard	Track Bar	Digital Console
Status Bar
Administrivia

Registration	License Agreement
Version Information

Release Notes	Revision History


Introduction

A-B-CD is a versatile CD player. It uses a database to store CD album information then automatically identifies each CD inserted in the drive and uses its information and state stored in the database. The program allows tracks on the CD to be rearranged and optionally removed (so that you don't have to listen to track that don't appeal to you).

Song tracks can be queued to play at a sequential or random order. The program saves its settings and window location on exit to uses them for the next session. It even saves the currently playing song, so you can pick up exactly where you left off when you start it again.

Song progress is shown (and can be controlled) by a moving track bar. Song order can be rearranged in any desired order by moving the song tracks around. Undesired songs can be removed from the album (this is no yet implemented). While a song is playing, it can be stopped or paused and then resumed.

A-B-CD is meant to be unobtrusive, it can run all the time as an icon. The animated icon provides a pleasant visual feedback on the play progress. Song play can be paused and resumed simply by clicking the right mouse button on the icon. The name of the current song is shown in the icon's caption, so it's always visible.

When another session of A-B-CD is invoked while the first is still running, it merely restores and raises the first one, no new session is started.

See also: Albums, Animated Icon


Compatibility

Both the 16bit and the 32bit versions of the program should run well under any Windows environment. The table below summarizes the program's compatibility with each Windows environment, and advises of the recommended version to use in each environment.

	16bit Version	32bit Version	Version Recommended
Windows 3.x	yes	yes (with Win32s)	16bit
Window NT	yes	yes	32bit
Window 95	yes	yes	32bit
OS/2	yes	yes (OS/2 3.x)	16bit

Note: to run the 32bit version under Windows 3.x, you'll need at least version 1.20 of Win32s -- prior versions may not work.

Running the 32bit version is recommended with 32bit operating systems (such as Windows NT and Windows 95) to take the best advantage of the multitasking and memory protection capabilities of these systems.

To uninstall the program, simply delete all files in its directory. The program is considerate in that it leaves no files in Windows directory (i.e. no garbage DLLs are left there; everything resides in the program's own directory).


Tutorial

This tutorial is intended to give you an easy head-start on using the program. While it doesn't cover everything, it does cover most of the essential features of the program, and it is laid out in a way that would make it easier to follow and absorb, since it follows the way you use the program, rather than the reference-like layout of the rest of this help file.

OK, let's get going. First of all, you must make sure that you have installed the Windows CD Audio driver on your system. If not, go to Control Panel, choose the Drivers applet, select Add, and finally choose the driver titled [MCI] CD Audio. I assume you have already done that. If not, go do it now. I'll be waiting for you.

Done? Fine, now put an audio CD in your CD-ROM drive. Then start A-B-CD by clicking on its icon in the Program Manager, or by any other means you wish to start it with. Hmm, what do you see? Well, after the upgrade information, which you'll see only once for each version, you'll see a window with the caption "Untitled". You'll also see that the window has a display of a bunch of unnamed tracks, arranged by number, called Track 1, Track 2, ..etc. This is of course a representation of the tracks on the CD album in your drive, think of it as a queue or list of songs in the album. You'll also notice that the album is now being played.

Let's start easy. Leave the album playing and let us first identify the elements of the window. We will come back to the database and all that stuff later -- no need to worry ourselves with that now. You'll see beneath the song queue that I mentioned above a digital console, similar to that of a VCR or a CD player. It's straight-forward to recognize what the numbers in that console mean, let's go though them anyway, briefly. From left to right, they are the time counter (how much of the song was played, in minutes and seconds), the total length of the song, the song number in the queue, and the total number of songs. Don't worry about the other things in the console for now.

Under that, there is a slider (scrollbar). You can advance or rewind the song by that scrollbar. Try it now, click to the right or left of the scrollbar thumb, the song will advance (or rewind), by 10%. Click on the arrows at both ends of the slider to advance or rewind by 1%, or depress the mouse on the thumb and drag to move anywhere in the song; you'll notice the counter changing as you drag the thumb, to indicate where the song will be advanced to (or rewound to; oh, it's so tiring to keep saying that, sort of like a he/she issue!).

Beneath the slider, you'll see a row of buttons. As you press each button, a small hint message appears in the status bar to tell you what each button does. Try it, press and hold down (don't release) the mouse on one of the buttons, you'll see the message, then move the mouse away from the button while still holding it down, and finally release it when you have moved it away from the button and the button is no longer pressed. This way you can find out what each button does without actually invoking its command. You'll recognize what the buttons do, anyway, since they have the same VCR symbols everybody knows (unless you have been living in a cage somewhere until now, that is; we must be accurate about these assumptions, you see). OK, enough of the chit-chat, click on the Pause button to pause the song play, click on it again to resume. click on the Stop button to stop playing, click on the Play button to start playing the song from the beginning (you can do that even if the song is already playing). Notice what appears in the digital console while you're doing that; it keeps you informed of what's going on.

Under the buttons, the status bar shows the current album, let's not talk about that now, and the currently playing song or track. Note that the song currently playing need not be the one selected; you can select any song and perform things on it (e.g. move, remove, ..etc.), while another is playing. The status bar shows the song playing, not necessarily the selected song. The right-most button, Highlight Current, will always select the currently playing song. You can use it to go back to that song after you have moved the selection around.

Let's go back to the queue. If the song currently playing has finished, you'll have noticed that the one after it started playing. Let's say you have many songs in there, and you want to play a particular one. Well, go to that song, and double-click on it; it will immediately start playing; or select it by the mouse, click by the right mouse button, and choose play; or select  it by the mouse and choose the menu Song * Play; or select it by the mouse and click the Play button, or ....  Ah, it's getting to be too much, but you get the idea, it's easy to select and play a song. Experiment with that and other things for a while, while I go get a cup of tea.

Hi, I'm back! Did you like it so far? No? Oh you lying !$@%... Ah, what's that? You did like it? Hmm, OK, sorry for my indiscretion. Let's go on with the show. Let's now personalize the album, it's no fun referring to the tracks just be number. First, the title of the album. Use the menu Album * Properties. In the dialog, enter the title of album. You can put the artist name there, or the name of the CD, anything you like that makes it easy for you to identify the album. I recommend that you put in the artist name and album title there, separated by a dash; for example, "Yanni - Live at the Acropolis". Once you have done that and clicked on Done, you'll notice at once that the title of the window now displays the new title you've chosen for the album. It is also displayed on the left side of the status bar.

Now let's do the same for the tracks. Select the first track in the queue list by clicking on it once by the mouse, then choose the menu Song * Edit. In the dialog, enter the title of the track. You can find the titles of all tracks on the back of the CD cover, of course, I'm sure you know that. After entering the title of first track, click on the button called Next and enter the title of the next track, and so on for the rest of the tracks. Let me tell you of a neat little trick here. Instead of clicking on the button called Next, simply hold down the Alt key and press N, i.e. Alt-N. This way you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard, and you can fill in the track titles much faster. Finally click on Done.

That's it! Your album now has its title and the titles of its tracks in the system, and when each track is played, its title is displayed in the status bar, so you know which one is playing. You'll want of course to run the program minimized most of the time, and you'll soon discover that A-B-CD, when minimized, is smart enough to display the track title instead of the album title in the icon caption, so you'll always know what song is playing, even when the program is minimized. We will talk later about how fun it is to run the program as an icon.

Let's move a few of the songs around. Use the Up and Down buttons near the end of the button row. Click on them to move the selected song (not necessarily the song playing) up or down the queue. Depress the Shift key while clicking these buttons to move the song all the way up or down the queue. Note that you can use the menu or accelerators to do that as well, i.e. move songs. As a matter of fact, if you want to move a song several places in quick succession, it is easiest to hold down Control-U, or Control-D, since these keys auto-repeat. For the purpose of this tutorial, do rearrange the order of the tracks a little so that they are not in perfect sequence; you can later bring them back to order, don't worry.

Now suppose that in this particular CD, there are songs that you don't particularly care for. Let's take those songs out of the album, shall we? Don't worry, we're not going to use a hammer and a screw driver, or brush the CD with sandpaper to erase those songs; everything we do here is reversible. Select the tracks you don't like, then use the menu Song * Remove, or click in the corresponding button. For the purpose of this tutorial, do remove some of the songs, say a couple. Don't worry, you can get them back later.

OK, by now you are probably asking yourself whether you'll have to enter all this information, the album and track titles, that is, every time you run the program. Well? Are you? Better not ask, you'll be insulting the program by such a question; and you know it has a dirty mouth! Hmm, just to show you, let's now pop this CD out and insert a new one. You can just press the eject button on the drive; or, if you have a CD-ROM drive that has a motorized tray (and a driver that knows about), all you have to do is just click on the Eject button of the program. Do it now, either way. You'll see that the door opens and the CD is ejected. You'll also notice that the queue list no longer displays the track titles. Now put in a new CD. You can click again on the Eject button to retract the CD tray and close the drive door. Just a side note here. The Eject button serves as both an eject and retract button. On some system this may not work; so in such cases try holding down the Shift key while clicking the button to eject the tray, and the Control key to retract it, or just use the menus. At any rate, once you insert the new CD, wait for a few seconds. The program will automatically read the CD and display its contents. If that doesn't happen, simply choose the Album * Open menu.

You can quickly fill in the titles of this new CD and its tracks. You can do that now or just skip that and do it later. Let's now pop this CD out and put back the one we started with. Let's do that now. I said now! Yes, must I always shout like this to get your attention? Ah, it's a sleepless night. Did you put it in? Hmm, what do we see here? You'll notice that the title you entered earlier is now displayed, and that the tracks have the titles you filled in for them. Not only that, but the tracks are rearranged exactly as you left them, and the ones you don't like are not there! And all was done automatically. That is a major feature of A-B-CD, once you enter this information once, it is remembered every time you insert the CD again. And since you can rearrange the tracks and remove some of them, you are in a sense now capable of editing any CD to your liking. As a matter of fact, once you have personalized your albums this way, you can just start A-B-CD iconized when you start Window, and forget it about it. You can then pop CDs in and out your drive and A-B-CD will be lurking around like a trusty old butler, playing the CDs just the way you want them to play, in any order you choose, and only the tracks you like. Think about it, it makes a lot of sense to do things this way.

Let's now clean things up a bit. First let's bring back the tracks we removed. I promised we could do that, and here is how. Choose the menu Song * Add, or press the corresponding button. From the dialog, which now displays the tracks we removed earlier, you can double-click on any track there to add it back the album. Now, let's also bring the album back to order. Select the menu Album * Maintain * Sort., this should do it.

Now other things. You may have noticed that as the last song in the queue finishes playing, playing stops. Most people like to go back to the first one and play that, and so forth. To make the program do that, use the Options * Song Play * Continuous Loop. This way songs will play indefinitely, looping to the first one when the last one finishes playing. Now, let's say you want to listen to the songs in random order. Two ways to do that. You can use the menu Album * Maintain * Shuffle to shuffle the order of the songs in the queue, or you can use the menu Options * Random Order, to make the next song to play always chosen at a random order. I won't go in details to describe the difference between these two, but it is evident that Random Order does not disturb the physical order of the queue, and Shuffle grantees each song to play once in each loop. When Random Order is checked, Continuous Loop becomes meaningless, of course. Not so with Shuffle.

OK, let me now briefly explain two things before going on to some fundamental stuff. Quickly, the Circulate button plays the next song in the queue. Think of it as a Next Song button. Except that when Random Order is in effect, the next song is actually chosen at random. You'll often use this button to skip the rest of current song when you're bored with it. But what if you actually like that song very much? Well, the next button, Repeat, is just for you. It plays the current song over and over until you're sick to death of it (it can actually sense that, mind you, really). Well, actually no, but you can toggle that back anytime you like, though.

Hmm, now for some fun. First, a puzzle. How do use A-B-CD 95% of the time? Well, iconized, of course, while you're doing other things; other useful things, mind you, not playing DOOM. Yes. I've been watching you! As a matter of fact, A-B-CD is great to be used like that, iconized, that is. Let's see why. First, with the song playing, minimize the program -- make it an icon. Hmm, the first thing you'll notice is that you can actually tell how far into the current song playing is, simply by looking at the icon. The icon actually changes to reflect that, sort of like a gauge that tells the percentage of the song elapsed. Now, what's that I'm hearing? The phone is ringing? Hmm, better take that. But wait, you can't hear the other party over the phone while music is playing. Well, have no fear. Simply click on the icon by the right mouse button to pause playing. Click again when you're finished talking to resume song play. See how easy it is? You can actually do that also by clicking by the left button and choosing Pause from the system menu, still while the program is minimized, but right-clicking is much easier and faster. Take note of the other menu item in the system menu, anyhow; you may want to use some of those later. You can also do the equivalent of Repeat, which I described above, by right-clicking on the icon while depressing the Shift key. Note that you can also do this same right-clicking business on the normal (non-iconized) window, by right-clicking anywhere on its surface

One final thing to note related to the iconized program. A-B-CD takes very little CPU time to play things; so it is ideal for using, minimized, to play songs in the background while you're moving about your business doing other things.

One last thing. If you don't like the font used to display the songs in the album, use the menu Options * Set Font to change it. Some people seem to think the default one is too small.

As I said, I won't explain everything in this tutorial -- I can't, there is so much to cover. But you now must have a grasp of the basic elements of the program, and you can wander about and experiment with things on your own. There are so many options under the Options menu, and they are all explained in this help file, so you're not on your own after all.


Albums

A-B-CD stores album information and state (e.g. album title, track titles, current song, rearranged track order, ..etc.) in a database when the album is saved. You normally need not worry about saving albums manually, they are saved automatically on program exit and when a new album is opened (e.g. by inserting a new CD into the drive). Automatic saving can be disabled, however, via the Auto Save Album option.


Animated Icon

Since A-B-CD is meant to be unobtrusive, it is designed to be run most of the time as an icon. When minimized, the essential functions of the program can be activated via the system menu or the right mouse button (see Mouse Actions actions), and the song play progress is visually conveyed via an animated icon.

The icon conveys the song progress by a monotonically increasing background color shade. The percentage of the song that has been played is proportional of the size of the icon's background that has been shaded.


Other Tips
Tips

A-B-CD automatically saves its settings (and the current album if Auto Save Album is enabled) on exit. You can force the program to do that without exiting either by invoking the Save Settings Now menu command or by holding down the Shift key while invoking a menu command or a keyboard accelerator that normally closes the application (e.g. Exit or Close menu items, or the Alt+F4 accelerator). The latter, rather non-obvious, method is similar to that of the Program Manager.

When performing database maintenance using the Album * Maintain * Database menu. The program can take a long time to lookup all albums in the database if many albums were saved using a version of the program prior to 5.0. If this bothers you, Add the statement UseLongDBLookup=0 to the [Settings] section of the program initialization file, A-B-CD.ini


Album Menu

Open

Opens and loads the album. Use this option to read the CD album if the program fails to read it automatically, or to reread the CD album if you would like to do that for any reason. The current album is saved is Album Auto Save is enabled. Note that this command overrides the Ignore 1-Track CDs option.

Save

Saves the current album to the database. When saved, track names and order will be remebered the next time the album is loaded.

Close

Closes the current album.

Delete

Removes the album from the database. The album's entry in the database is deleted, and the custom album and track titles are lost forever. Needless to say, this does not affect the actual CD in any way.

Maintain

Contains various album maintenance menu items, described below..

Sort

Sorts the album by the original CD track order.

Shuffle

Shuffles the album's song order randomly. Note that this is slightly different from using the Random Order option, since in this case every song in the album is guaranteed to play in each loop. Also, in this case, Continuous Loop is not implied. Use any combination of Shuffle, Continuous Loop, and Random Play to achieve the effect you desire.

Database

Database maintenance. Lists all albums in the database, and allows the user to delete albums from it. In contrast to Delete, mentioned above, which allows you to delete only the current album from the database, this menu command allows the user to delete any album, and gives the user a quick list of all albums in the database.

Properties

Displays the album properties and allows changing some of them (e.g. album title).

Eject

Ejects the CD tray (hardware-dependent, some CD-ROM drives do not support this command).

Retract

Retracts the CD tray (hardware-dependent, some CD-ROM drives do not support this command).

Exit

Terminates the program.


Song Menu

Play

Plays the selected song from the beginning.

Stop

Stops song play. In contrast to Pause, a song that is stopped cannot be resumed, it starts playing from the beginning if Play is selected.

Pause/Resume

Pauses the currently playing song, or resumes a paused song (toggle). The current state of this toggle is indicated by a check mark.

Repeat

Continuously plays the currently playing song until toggled back. This button is useful if during playing, a particular song appeals to you and you want to listen just to it for a while. The current state of this toggle is indicated by a check mark.

Circulate

Plays the next song, or the next randomly-selected song if Random Order is checked.

Edit

Allows changing the track titles to match those of the CD. If the album is saved, the new titles are remembered the next time the album is loaded.

Add

Adds songs to the album. Songs that can be added are those that have been removed using the Remove menu option or button.

Remove

Removes the selected song from the album, Plays the next song if the selected song is the one currently playing. If no songs are left in the album, playing is stopped.

Move Up/Down

Moves the selected song one position up (or down) the list in the album. Note: Holding down the Shift key while selecting this command moves the song all the way up (or down) the list, i.e. makes that song the first (or last) song in the queue.

Highlight Current

Moves the selection highlight to the active (playing or paused) song. If you have selected another song, this command is useful to quickly return you to the active song.


Options Menu

The status of every options is saved on exit and used in the next session, so there is no need to adjust it on every program invocation. The current state of each option is indicated by a check mark.

Continuous Loop

Continuous play. Loops to the first song when the last one in the queue finishes playing.

Random Order

Plays songs in random rather than sequential order. This also effectively yields continuous play. See also Shuffle under the Album menu.

Elapsed Time

Whether to show elapsed or remaining time in the counter. If checked, the time counter shows the time elapsed of the song currently active. If unchcked, the counter show the time remaining of the current song.

Auto Play

Starts playing songs automatically when an album is loaded. Otherwise song play has to be started manually after loading an album.

Auto Save Album

Saves the current album on program exit or when another album is opened (e.g. by loading a different CD).

Stop Play on Exit

Stops song play on program exit. Otherwise the CD continues to play after the program terminates.

Ignore 1-Track CDs

Does not load single-track CDs, which are usually data CDs (i.e. contain files rather than audio sound). This is useful to keep that database clean, since it prevents the program from loading these CDs and saving them to the database (if Auto Save Album is enabled) if they are inserted in the drive while the program is active.

Window Elements

These options let you show or hide some elements of the window. These include the menu, buttons, and status bar. You can also choose to have the buttons displayed at the top of the window rather than at the bottom. One thing to note is that if you choose to hide the menu, you can have is displayed again by choosing Restore Menu from the system menu. This collection of options is still experimental, and is not saved between sessions of the program like the other options.

Mini-Help

If enabled, a short message describing the highlighted menu item or the selected button is shown in the status bar while that menu item is highlighted or the button is pressed. Hence, all buttons and menu items are self-explanatory. This option may be turned off once the user masters the functions of the various menus and buttons.

Set Font

Sets the font of the album queue list. A dialog appears from which a font can be selected.

Save Settings on Exit

Saves program settings (as well as the current album if Auto Save Album is enabled) on exit. It is highly recommended that you leave this option enabled all the time.

Save Settings Now

This is not option, it is a command. It saves program settings (as well as the current album if Auto Save Album is enabled) when invoked. You normally do not need to invoke this menu command if Save Settings on Exit is enabled.


Help Menu
Self-explanatory.


System Menu

Play

Equivalent to Play in the Song menu.

Pause/Resume

Equivalent to Pause/Resume in the Song menu. The current state of this toggle is indicated by a check mark.

Eject/Retract

Equivalent to the Eject/Retract button.

Repeat

Equivalent to Repeat in the Song menu. The current state of this toggle is indicated by a check mark.

Circulate

Equivalent to Circulate in the Song menu.

Restore Menu

This command restores the main menu and makes it appear again, if hidden. This menu item appears only if you have chosen not to display the main menu, via the Window Elements option.


Buttons

The program uses smart buttons. A short message describing the selected button is shown in the title bar while the button is held down.

 Play

Equivalent to Play in the Song menu.

 Pause/Resume

Equivalent to Pause/Resume in the Song menu.

 Stop

Equivalent to Stop in the Song menu.

 Eject/Retract

Ejects or retracts the CD tray, depending on its state (hardware-dependent, some CD-ROM drives do not support this command). See Eject and Rerract menu options. One thing to note here is that if you depress this button while holding down the Shift key, it always ejects the tray, whereas if you depress the button while holding down the Control key, it always retracts the tray.

 Circulate

Equivalent to Circulate in the Song menu.

 Repeat

Equivalent to Repeat in the Song menu.

 Edit

Equivalent to Edit in the Song menu.

 Add

Equivalent to Add in the Song menu.

 Remove

Equivalent to Remove in the Song menu.

 Up/Down

Equivalent to Up/Down in the Song menu.

 Current

Equivalent to Highlight Current in the Song menu.


Mouse Actions

Left Button

Clicking the left mouse button on any song in the album selects it. While a song is selected, song commands (e.g. Play, Edit, and Remove) apply to it. A song may be selected even though another song is playing. Merely clicking the left button only selects the song, it does not play it. Double-clicking the left mouse button on a song selects the song and starts playing that song from its beginning.

Right Button

Clicking the right mouse button on the programs icon or window surface (not on the buttons or the list box) is equivalent to selecting Pause/Resume from the Song menu. Holding down the Shift key while doing that is equivalent to selecting Repeat. Clicking the right button on any song in the list box selects that song and pops up a menu that has a subset of the commands in the Song Menu. You can return to the song currently playing by choosing Highlight Current from the menu or pressing Control+H.


Keyboard Actions

Tab

Switches between window groups and group members.

Arrow Keys

Switches between group members. For example, when in the queue list box group, switches between songs; when in the Play button group, switches between the member buttons (Play, Pause/Resume, Stop, and Eject).

Accelerators

There are also keyboard accelerators for the more frequently-used menu commands (e.g. F1 for Help Contents, ..etc.). These are shown on their corresponding menu items. Moreover, when the album list box has the focus (you change the focus to it either by clicking anywhere inside it, or by pressing Tab a few times to switch to it), the selection highlight can be moved quickly to any song by pressing the first digit in its track number. Pressing more than once moves the selection highlight to the next song whose track number begins with that digit.

Keyboard Modifiers

Some mouse actions, keyboard accelerators, and menu commands perform different functions depending on the state of the Control or Shift keys. These are mentioned in the appropriate section for each. Here is a sample:

Action	Modifier	New Effect
Eject/Retract	Shift	Always ejects
Eject/Retract	Control	Always retracts
Up/Down	Shift	Moves the song all the way up (or down) the queue, instead of just one position
Right Mouse Button	Shift	Equivalent to selecting Repeat
Exit, Close	Shift	Equivalent to selecting Save Settings Now
Alt+F4	Shift	Equivalent to selecting Save Settings Now


Track Bar

The track bar shows the current position in the song being played. This position can be changed by dragging the slider of the track bar. While dragging the slider, the destination position is shown (in seconds) in the digital console. The song can also be advanced or receded 1% by the end arrows, or 10% by clicking in the area between them. The keyboard can also be used.


Digital Console

The digital console displays important information about the song play progress, album characteristics, and selected options.

The LCD digits display the following, respectively:

•	Current time position in the song.

•	Length of the song in minutes.

•	Track number of the song.

•	Total number of tracks in the album.

The buttom row indicates whether the following is true, respectively:

•	Song is playing.

•	Song is paused.

•	Repeat is active.

•	Continuous Loop is active.

•	Random Order is active.


Status Bar

In addition to displaying the current album and song titles, a short hint message describing the highlighted menu item or the selected button is shown in the status bar while that menu item is highlighted or the mouse is over that button. Hence, all buttons and menu items are self-explanatory. This behavior can be turned off using Mini-Help from the Options menu.

Moreover, during time-consuming operations (e.g. loading or saving an album, loading a song, ..etc.), a brief message describing the current task being performed is displayed in the status bar.


Release Notes
Nothing special to note here. Have fun with the program.


Registration

This software is provided as shareware. If you use this program on a regular basis (say for more than two weeks), you are requested to register it. The registration fee is not much, about what you would pay for a decent meal in a respectable restaurant (no, McDonald's does not qualify :-). Basically, the registration fee is:

$10 for the 16bit version of this program, or

$15 for both the 16bit and 32bit versions of this program, or

$20 for the 16bit and 32bit versions of both this program and The Juker (4 programs in all).

You can use whatever method of payment you like. Inside the US, probably the easiest way for you is via a personal check or money order. Outside the US, you can just send cash. Wrap the cash in a piece of paper or use a thick envelope, so that it won't be stolen. You don't have to use US dollars, use whatever its equivalent of your currency -- I might just keep it as a collectible.

You can also obtain a site license of the program for a low fee. And you can obtain a license to bundle the program with your hardware or software product, also for a low fee. Contact me for the details on those.

Make the registration fee payable to M. M. S., and send it to this address:

M. M. S.
262 Sidney St. Apt. #3
Cambridge, MA 02139
U.S.A.

email: alsaggaf@mit.edu

Please include your email address with your registration, if you have one. It makes it easy for me you respond to you more quickly. If have you access to ftp, The latest version of the program should be available by ftp at ftp.cica.indiana.edu.


OtherProg
The Juker is a super multimedia jukebox for Windows (MID/WAV/AVI/etc.). Great for listening to MIDI music in the background, since it is quite unobtrusive and consumes virtually no CPU time. Supports song albums, to organize your multimedia files into logical groups (jazz, classical, ..etc.). Has more options that you can think of, yet it is really easy to use. Uses an interface similar to this program. Should be available at the same site you got this program from, as juker50.zip.


Shareware
Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a  Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual.

Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware.

Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy, and because the overhead is low, prices are low also.  Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it.


License Agreement

This software is provided as shareware. You are encouraged to use this program on an evaluation basis and pass it along to friends and upload it to bulletin board systems. This program may not, however,  be disassembled, decomposed, reverse engineered, or altered in any way, nor any of the other files in the package. This includes, but is not limited to, modifying any icons, menus, or displays associated with the software.

This software may not be sold. This restriction, however, does not apply to connect time charges, download fees, or reproduction charges. This software may not be bundled with any commercial package without the explicit written permission of the author.

The author of this program disclaims all warranties with regard to this software, including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall the author be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence, or other tortuous action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of this software.


Revision History

Version 2.0

Version 1.4

Version 1.2

Version 1.04


Version 2.0

The program now shows only the album title in the window caption bar, and only the song name in the icon caption. Both are displayed in the status bar.

The album database can now be maintained easily by the new Database menu item, and entire albums can be deleted easily from the database there.

Album title can be longer, 50 characters long (up from 30).

Track titles are now virtually unlimited in length.

New album is now called Untitled, instead of Default.

Fixed the load album routine. Now the current album is closed before attempting to open a new one.

Open Album now saves the current one before loading another one (or reloading the current one), if Auto Save is enabled.

A warning is now issued if opening the album fails when the user selects the Open Album menu.

Choosing Open Album now overrides the Ignore 1-Track CDs option.

New: Shuffle Album (different than Random Play) -- shuffles the album songs once.

The program now is more courteous to other applications while performing time-consuming tasks, although opening albums would now take slightly more real time.

The song counter is now incremented while loading the album, to give visual feedback.

Many pieces of information are displayed in the new status bar.

New, cooler buttons that reflect the Pause, ..etc. status (e.g. depressed means paused).

New Maintain Album menu. Gathers other relevant menu items under it.

The buttons and the status bar can be removed, and the location of the buttons can be changed.

Reorganized the Options menu into logical submenus.

The main menu can now be removed. Use the system menu to restore it.

Time counter can now show time left (decreasing) instead of time elapsed (increasing).

Dialogs are no longer centered on the main window, but offset a little bit. Look nicer this way.

Dialog fonts are now normal, not bold

New, better-looking About dialog.

Symbol and digital fonts no longer appear in the Change Font dialog.

Added a very informative tutorial to the help file -- a must-read. Also a tutorial button was added to the help file, and menu item in the program's Help menu.

Reorganized the Revision History section of the help file.

The program window is now never placed off-screen on startup.

The slider now does not start playing a song if the song is stopped, and is disabled in this case. It gets enabled when song play is commenced.

Cleaned up the slider position calculation code.

Upgrade dialog is now no longer shown if an older version of the program was run after the current one.

The initialization file (INI) is now located in the program's own directory.

Cleaned up the profile saving routines.

Various other small changes, code cleanup, and bug fixes.


Version 1.4

Added new menu item: Close Album

Fixed memory management of user interface objects. They are no longer deleted twice.

Reorganized the song information display procedures.

The timer message handler now handles re-entrance properly.

Now uses ctl3dv2.dll instead of ctl3d.dll. Much better and setup hassles.

Main window is now inactive (disabled) during lengthy operations like saving and loading an album.

Now uses owner-draw list boxes to place song display fields correctly, regardless of the font used. Track length, for example, is now alsways flush right.

Added small bitmap in the queue list.

Now uses Shift as well as Control as keyboard modifiers. Eventually, use of Control will be phased out.

Fixed a bug that caused the resume to start at the wrong location if the CD was accessed by another process while it was loaded by the program.

Enhanced the look of the Edit Track and Album Properties dialogs.

Now if a data CD is in the drive, only one warning is given when an attempt to play it is made.

Now no warring is given for data CDs if Auto-Play is disabled.

No message about Delete Album is given if no album is loaded.

Added Play to the system menu. Useful when Auto-Play is disabled.

Track length is now flush right in the queue display.

Increased the allowable song name to a maximum of 40.

Added Ignore 1-Track CDs. Useful to ignore data CDs and load and save them. Keeps the album database clean.

Improved the application icon.

Fixed a bug that would crash the application when an album name is given in the Album Properties dialog box but no album loaded.


Version 1.2

Fixed a bug that would cause the wrong song to be edited if circulation has happened while the song is being edited.

Now focus is given to the edit field in the song edit dialog box even if the mouse is used on the Prev/Next buttons.

New menu item: Delete album, to remove the album from the database.

Open Album now reloads the album if it is already open.

Added a new option: Stop Play on Exit. Controls whether to stop playing the CD on program exit or continue playing even after the program terminates.

Added Eject/Load to system menu

Now the Add and Remove in the Song menu are enabled. You can now add and remove tracks from the CD at will.

Fixed a bug that would cause the slider in the track bar to move erroneously when it is repositioned.

Fixed a bug that would cause the program to circulate to the first song if it fails to play any song in the queue.

Holding down Shift while choosing Move Up/Down now moves the song all the way up (or down) the queue.


Version 1.04

Initial public release.