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The Aurora Works' Forum is a page for periodic articles, letters, computer art, and other items deemed appropriate to computing on the Amiga. We will post selected submissions from computer gamers, artists (2D,3D,sound, and music), game designers, and other Amiga industry professionals on a semi-regular basis. Submissions may be sent to suggestions@auroraworks.com. All copyrights from submitted and posted material remain with the original authors.

Datatypes -- Music to My Ears!

(or how to add music to your web browser)

I have long thought that datatypes are amazing and that had Commodore survived, datatypes would have been counted as revolutionary. However, Commodore disappeared and although some new operating systems such as the BeOS are looking at such an idea and Apple's new Cyberdog technology is similar, it is an idea that has largely been untapped. Although today's Amiga programmers have had a difficult time because documentation is lacking and the actual implementation of datatypes is incomplete (no music or movie classes), the ground work was laid. Many people are starting to see the true power of datatypes, and there are more and more datatypes appearing on the Aminet even for complex file formats such as mpegs. Amiga programmers are adding some really fantastic abilities to the Amiga using nothing more than the OS itself through datatypes. Although I have always been interested in datatypes, the one that has really got me excited lately is a mod datatype. Do you want a simple solution that will add music to your Amiga web browsing experience? If so, read on!

Do you realize how close Multiview (Amigaguide's replacement) is to being a web browser? The idea of Multiview was and still is revolutionary especially considering that it was introduced in the early nineties. Only now is Apple coming up with the idea of an 'empty' application or document which gets its functionality from mini apps much like the datatypes 3.x Amiga OS users add to their devs: directory. Earlier this week, I received a few files from Roger H�gensen, an Amiga artist and programmer. One of the files was the excellent AHI by Martin Blom. In the AHI archive there was a few examples of how AHI works and of particular interest to me was an example Protracker datatype that used AHI to play. I installed AHI and the Protracker datatype by copying a few files to my system, and I reset my machine. Now, any program that fully supports datatypes, even if the program was written before the datatype existed, can use the information.

The Amiga has always been a flexible machine, but now Amiga applications, many of which are already tremendously flexible because of ARexx, can be even more so. Instantly, Multiview becomes a basic mod player! That is nothing short of amazing. In the future, when new data formats are created, all that has to happen is for a datatype to be written and Multiview or any Amiga application that fully supports datatypes can use the new imformation. A word processor that uses datatypes for document loading is an excellent example of how useful datatype support could be to programs. The word processor could open new and upcoming document formats from Microsoft or Word Perfect (Corel) far into the future without changing the actual program itself -- the program stays the same and a datatype is created for the new format. The datatype does not even have to be written by the original program developer but can be created by other developers or shareware authors.

As I have mentioned, Multiview with more development could be a basic built-in web browser shipping with every Amiga, playing movies, sounds, music, and showing all the different graphic formats corresponding to the datatypes that are installed in the computer's datatypes and classes directories. Once you are finished web surfing with Multiview, you could decide to check the online Multiview documentation for a new Amiga program, watching and listening to a movie showing how to use a particular feature. All this and more is possible with not much more than what the Amiga OS already has at its disposal. Datatypes are a very powerful part of the Amiga OS, but they can play an even larger role in the future, allowing us to add more and more functionality to the Amiga.

Every time I learn more about datatypes, I discover even more hidden power in the concept and implementation, and I gain more respect for the Commodore software engineers who added them to the Amiga OS. Once I had AHI and the Protracker datatype installed, I started thinking about a pet project that I had been meaning to get around to -- inline mods for web browsers. I had already used inline sounds with datatypes and AWeb2.1 so I tried using mods instead of wavs or iffs. Guess what? When the page loaded, my formerly silent web browsing Amiga starting playing wonderful music! So much for my pet project. I don't have to program a thing because it has already been done for me by Martin Blom's AHI, the datatype, and the power of the Amiga OS! While it has already been possible to add-on or plug-in modules and programs that allowed for playing of sounds and music, I had not been able to find a clean simple way to add music to web pages. No buttons have to be pressed and no new gui has to open onto my screen. The web browser that was formerly unable to play inline mods, now can. The power of datatypes is music to my ears!

To get AWebII-2.1 to play inline mods, all you have to do is the following:

1. Get the AHI archive from either here, the Aminet site closest to you, or the AHI home page and unarchive it.
2. Install the 'AHI.device' file and the 'AHI' and 'AudioModes' directories to 'Devs' in your system partition.
3. Find the Protracker datatype included in the archive which should be found in 'User/Examples/ProtrackerDatatype'
4. Install the files in the 'Classes/Datatypes' and 'Devs/Datatypes' directories to the 'Classes/Datatypes' and 'Devs/Datatypes' directories respectively in your system partition.
5. Reset your machine.
6. Load a web page that has the following tag < bgsound src="modname.mod "> and listen to the music! Try our company's home page for an example -- mod courtesy of Roger H�gensen.
7. If you wish to improve the sound quality or use your sound card instead of the Amiga's built in audio, read the AHI documents for how to fine tune the set up of AHI and the Protracker datatype.

Adding mods to your own web pages is as simple as adding a tag like the one above and including an appropriately small mod file to your website. The bgsound tag will also work with sound files so you can add wav files or iff files or whatever format you want and as long as people have the datatype for the sound format, they will hear the sound. If a web browser does not support the bgsound tag or the file, the mod or sound should be ignored. Any Amiga set up properly and with a browser that supports the tag (and datatypes) will be able to hear your music! If you are an Amiga developer or hobby programmer and you have been ignoring datatypes, perhaps it is time you gave them a more serious look?

As a final note, please do not disturb Martin Blom (he was the first one who thought of adding the tag for music) about problems with the Protracker datatype. He is busy working on the AHI audio system and the datatype is just an example for others to follow and improve on.

-- James Ceraldi, 07 Jan 1997

Archived Forum Material

"Amiga Fest '96", 03 Dec 1996
"Answers to Survey Questions", 24 Nov 1996
"The Amiga's Future", 15 Nov 1996

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Last modified: 14 Apr 97