home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Best of the Best
/
_.img
/
02154
/
muzak2.arc
/
MUZAK.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-07-09
|
7KB
|
114 lines
MUZAK.DOC
Documentation to MUZAK.BAS and MUZAK.EXE
Version 2.3 (9 July 1986)
Aaron Ross Priven
Music Written by Assorted Authors
REQUIREMENTS: MS/PCDOS 2.0 or higher, one double-sided disk drive (or
other storage device with the same or higher capacity). For the .BAS
interpreted version, IBM Cartridge BASIC, IBM Advanced BASIC, or
Microsoft GWBASIC is required. For the compiled version, MS/PCDOS 2.1 is
required. It has been tested using IBM Advanced BASIC and the compiled
version using the IBM Basic Compiler 2.0 on an IBM PC-1 with the November
1981 ROM-BIOS and 320K of memory, 257 of which was available for use. I
am not sure exactly how much RAM is required, but 128K should do it.
USER LICENSE: What's a license? This program is yours to modify, revamp,
or delete, as the case may be. This is FREE.
INSTRUCTIONS: To use MUZAK, extract all the files with .MUZ extensions
from the archive MUZAK23.ARC, as well as either MUZAK.BAS or MUZAK.EXE.
Start MUZAK from the DOS prompt by typing "MUZAK" for the compiled
version or, making sure that the BASIC interpreter is available, type
BASICA (or the name of your interpreter) MUZAK. There is no real
advantage to running either version save that the compiled version
requires a copy of COMMAND.COM to be around when it exits, and the
interpreted version requires a copy of BASICA.COM or the equivalent
upon entry., except that if you use the -F or -D command line entries, it
is easier (but not impossible) to use the compiled version. Once you have
started the program, the "What Kind of Songs" menu appears. Pick a
selection by pressing the appropriate key. Then the "Pick a Song"
menu appears. Pick another selection. The song plays. Either wait
for the song to end or hit <ESC> to quit playing, upon which it will
return to the "Pick A Song" menu. You may pick another selection, or hit
<ESCAPE> or <RETURN> to return to the "What Kind of Songs" menu. If
you return to the "What Kind of Songs" menu, you may pick another
selection or hit <ESCAPE> to exit MUZAK, whereupon it will ask you
if you REALLY want to leave or not. This should be rather
straightforward.
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS: There are two command line options. The first is -
F. This will get rid of the fancy "starry pattern" which I found in an
old PCBlue library disk. I personally like it, but if you don't, just
type MUZAK -F (or MUZAK /F -- it stands for FAST) and it'll go bye-bye.
The other option is -D or /D (DEBUG) and that will show each line of
music as it's being played. I expect this last will only appeal to me,
but so what. If you can only run the interpreted version, then this is
how you access the command lines: load up GWBASIC or BASICA without
running a program, e.g. so it prints the version number at the top when
you load it. Load MUZAK.BAS with the LOAD command. Then type: COMMAND$=
"-D" or COMMAND$="-F" or COMMAND$="/D /F" or whatever. The line must
be in capitals because I wrote it for the compiler and the compiler
automatically capitalizes it. Then type GOTO 1000. However, it's a
big pain. Personally if it came to that I'd probably just modify the
program, if I were you. Fortunately, I'm not.
LEAVING MUZAK: The easiest way to leave MUZAK is to hit <ESCAPE> a lot.
It no longer matters how you leave. In fact, <CONTROL-BREAK> checking has
been added in the compiled version (it was always there in the
interpreted version).
DOS ENVIRONMENT: MUZAK has been rewritten to not use the DOS
environment. This leaves off the biggest pain in MUZAK and eases my mind
a lot. Now I don't look like quite the idiot programmer I did before.
ADDING FILES TO MUZAK: This is a very easy thing to do. The formats are
found in the accompanying MUZFMT.DOC, and the only other thing really
necessary is to know that a "music code" is one of the codes found under
the "PLAY" statement in some sort of BASIC manual.
COMPILING MUZAK: Well, if you really want to (I only did it because
somebody asked), I just compiled it under the IBM BASIC Compiler 2.0
(Microsoft QuickBasic works just as well) with the parameters /N/O/D. As
I understand it /N makes all programs, line numbers or no, work faster.
Then I LINKed it under IBM Link 2.3 with no parameters.
NOTE: Some (many) of the new .MUZ files added with version 2.3 are
unknown to the author, meaning I don't know what they are! Many if not
most of the ones marked "Programmed and Written Anonymously" are merely
ones I don't know about. If you can help me with this, I'd really
appreciate it! Also I lost some of the BASIC programs I took them from,
so I'm not sure of all of them because of THAT.
GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE AUTHOR: Please DO!!! I am interested in all
conversation regarding MUZAK because I'm starved for it! A lot more
people have talked to me about it than before -- thanks -- and Nelson
Ford even wrote a review in a Houston Software SIG about MUZAK (see the
accompanying file REVIEW.DOC), but the more the merrier!
JUST HOW EXACTLY TO TOUCH THE AUTHOR: Well, the BBS I once had went down
on account of lack of users. Oh well. Anyway, you can still contact me on
the following BBS's: TechNet, San Carlos, CA, (415) 595-5079; Charisma,
San Mateo, CA, (415) 349-6576; or Kay+Fun, Belmont, CA, (415) 572-8219.
Also, a FIDO Node has started up near me. I forget the Fido address, but
the name is "The Dog Lab" and the address is "somewhere near San
Francisco, CA", which is where the sysop says Belmont is. Leave a message
on any one of these to "Aaron Priven" and I'll respond. I do have a
CompuServe UserID, but the last time I was on must have been at least 3
months ago, so I wouldn't count on it, but here it is: 74776,431. I'm not
sure exactly whose name it's in, but it should work if you REALLY don't
mind waiting, on a scale of months. (Like a quick "You stink, quit
littering up BBSs with your garbage." that might do fine.) Also, you
could write me using Real Live US Postal Service Mail, if you prefer.
Thank you for perusing this file.
=Aaron Ross Priven= 540 Sylvan Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403-3214 USA
, if you prefer.
Thank you for perusing this file.
=Aaron Ross