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1994-08-06
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MIDAS Sound System v0.32 revision A
-----------------------------------
MIDAS Sound System is Copyright 1994 Petteri Kangaslampi and Jarno
Paananen. It may only be used, modified and distributed under the terms
of the MIDAS Sound System license, LICENSE.TXT.
This is the second public version of MIDAS Sound System, and, as the
version number suggests, this is not a finished version. The most
important feature lacking from this version is full documentation. Some
documentation is included in the DOCS\ directory, which you should read
through before proceeding, but mostly you are currently on your own.
This release is, therefore, intended for experienced programmers only.
The best source for learning to use MIDAS Sound System is the source
code, so take a good look at the example programs, experiment with them
and modify them. After all, that is what having the source code is all
about.
This version includes several changes from v0.31c. The most important
change is that all Pascal loaders are now replaced with C functions
that are linked into the Pascal Module Players. This unfortunately
means, that to be fully able to recompile the Pascal version, also a C
compiler is needed. However, the module loader object files are
naturally also included in the PAS_OBJS\ directory. The new loaders use
no C library functions directly, and even the low-level file routines
have been written also in assembler, so they are completely independent
of the C library. This means that they could easily be linked into pure
assembler as well, provided that proper memory and error handling
functions were written first.
This version also includes numerous smaller changes, which are mainly
bug fixes. REVISION.032 includes a more detailed list of changes, but
even it does not include everything. Most of the changes are not
visible to the user though.
Again, precompiled assembler modules for the C and Pascal versions are
included in the C_OBJS\ and PAS_OBJS\ directories to avoid compilation
problems. In addition to this, the PAS_OBJS\ directory also contains
the module loader routines. To use the precompiled objects, simply copy
them to the main MIDAS directory. Note that you can not use MAKELIB.BAT
or MAKETPU.BAT, as they would attempt to recompile the assembler files
too, but you must use "MAKE -fMIDASLIB.MAK" or "MAKE -fMIDASTPU.MAK"
instead.
A last minute addition at Assembly: It seems that not all of the
modules work correctly if compiled with TASM 3.1. We are not sure why,
and the TASM gives no error or warning messages, but the effects demo
fails if TASM 3.1 is used. In addition to this, the Protracker and
Scream Tracker 3 Module Players are of different size when compiled
with TASM 3.1 than with TASM 4.0. So to prevent problems, we recommend
that you recompile the assembler modules only with TASM 4.0.
If you have any questions, comments or bugs reports, or just want to
share some thoughts about programming in general, please contact us. We
hope that you understand that supporting a free product is not always
very motivating, especially under heavy pressure from outside world
like school, and so without any feedback from you the MIDAS project
will probably not have a long life. So, whether you like MIDAS or not,
please let us know. And if you find MIDAS useful and use it in your
programs, a souvenir postcard from your home city would be nice...
We will be extremely grateful for any kind of support you can offer to
help us in continuing to make these free public versions available. We
would need support BBSes, a HQ BBS from the H{me are in Finland and
having a "official" support FTP-site would be nice too. And of course
we can use practically anything computer related: programming
information, example code, software, hardware etc.
Finally, a note to all sound card manufacturers and marketers: MIDAS
does not support very many sound cards yet, but we will add support to
practically any sound card, provided that we can get the programming
information and a card for testing. So if you have a sound card that
you would like us to support in its native mode, contact us.
Contacting information
----------------------
e-mail: (preferred)
pekanga@freeport.uwasa.fi (Petteri Kangaslampi)
Jarno_Paananen@sonata.fipnet.fi (Jarno Paananen)
gurus2@freeport.uwasa.fi (Jarno Paananen, use if the fipnet
address fails)
FidoNet: (SLOW!)
Petteri Kangaslampi, 2:221/319 (Maximus Filecenter)
voice:
+358-31-646764 (Petteri Kangaslampi)
+358-31-3422147 (Jarno Paananen)
Please restrict your calls to 10.00 - 21.30, Finnish time.
normal mail:
Petteri Kangaslampi
Simeoninkuja 4
FIN-36240 Kangasala 4
Finland
Jarno Paananen
Puskalantie 6
FIN-37120 Nokia
Finland
BBS: No "official" support BBS yet, want to be one?
Whom to contact?
----------------
If you have a question about a particular subject, here is a list of
which of us did what. Naturally you can contact either one of us - we
will forward the messages as necessary.
Petteri Kangaslampi:
* General questions about MIDAS
* MIDAS architecture, including error handling and memory
allocation
* Pascal version
* Pro Audio Spectrum, Windows Sound System and Sound Blaster
Sound Devices
* Mixing routines (DSM).
Jarno Paananen:
* Gravis UltraSound Sound Device
* Protracker and Scream Tracker 3 module players
Distribution sites
------------------
The latest MIDAS Sound System and MIDAS Module Player should be always
available on these fine BBSes:
WarmBoot BBS +55-194-265112
Sysop: Carlos Henrique Cantu (WarmBooter)
Moir Brandts Honk #1: +31-(0)70-3461215 USR/DS (14K4)
#2: +31-(0)70-3457929 ZyXEL U-1496E+ (19K2)
#3: +31-(0)70-3452981 LineLink 144e (14K4)
Sysop: Hugo Voerman
The Pantheon 703-378-3553 (changing soon?)
Sysops: Farmicus [CiA], Lord Soth [iCE], and Shaggy [iCE Senior
Staff]
The Solarium +358-31-3170851
Sysop: Jussi Hölttä (Peak / Anarchy)