I read the Internet mail every day, and will reply immediately (allow a couple of days for net.delay), but only call CI$ once a fortnight, or less.
The following is a reverse-chronology of the changes in each release (public or Beta) of SndConverter Pro. Note that version numbers which include the letter ‘a’ or ‘b’ were Alpha or Beta Testing releases only, and as such not available to the public. I have left their details in for your interest only.
The “Release” number given is the release of the Dejal Sound Utilities, so for example the features and bugs in SndConverter Pro release 6 will be similar to those in SndPlayer release 6. Remember that the list is sorted in reverse order, so the most recent releases are at the top.
Release 7; version 2.1, 15 June 1993:
• The following is a description of the changes for each Beta edition for this release (this information will be summarised in subsequent releases):
What was the 2.1b3 release about? Fixes for compression.
• Added a check to ensure the MACE routines are available before using them.
• Fixed crashing when compressing a corrupted sound [Thanks to Beta Tester Julian Harris for pointing this out].
• Added a skip dialog when a compressed SoundCap file is detected, since I currently don’t support compressed SoundCap files. If you have any code to enable me to do this, I’d appreciate receiving a copy.
• Increased the time-to-upgrade interval to six months.
What was the 2.1b2 release about? Downsampling buttons.
• Added a Cancel button to the Downsampling dialog [Thanks to Beta Tester Julian Harris for this suggestion].
• Added a Downsample checkbox to the Compression dialog for convenience [Thanks to Julian Harris for this one too].
What was the 2.1b1 release about? MACE support.
• Added the compression dialog, MACE (Macintosh Audio Compression & Expansion) support code, recognition of compressed sounds in the progress window.
• Fixed a problem with the Registration Form — the text was being cut off prematurely. Also updated the form for the new SyQuest sound library options, etc.
Release 6; version 2.0, 1 February 1993:
• Re-wrote the documentation as many separate files instead of two larger ones.
• Modified the code to ensure I open resource files properly.
• Open All changed to Hilited Folder / Current Folder buttons.
• Fixed mask of sys 7 suitcase icon: wasn’t a full square [thanks to Beta Tester Julian Harris for noticing the effect of this].
• Major code tidy-up.
• Some work on tracing the problems that some users have reported with the Open All function and other Open dialog related problems.
• I now sort the sounds within suitcases alphabetically, instead of simply reading in the details in the order they are stored in the suitcase, which is effectively random order.
• Added support for the Escape key as another method of cancelling the converting, as requested by Beta Tester and Registered User Allan Marshall.
• Made the progress bar a little narrower, in line with the Finder’s.
• I now don’t renumber the sound resources written out, unless I have to.
• Reworded the time-to-upgrade pref, thanks to Richard Knuckey’s comments. I hope it’s better now.
• New preferences: Display Size and Display Playing Time.
• Added “WAVE” file type to the list of recognised data fork sounds.
• Improved progress bar colour handling — colours now match System 7’s copy progress bar.
• Fixed a few bugs with the previous release (nothing major).
• Reimplemented the prefs dialog as three pages.
• I’ve also reworked the ask for format dialog: now it looks much better, with icons for each of the radio buttons, and better descriptive text in a different font.
• Also there is a new format supported: the System 7 suitcase format. This is actually exactly the same as the snd suitcase format, but don’t tell anyone! <g> Seriously, it is useful to support it as a destination format.
• I’ve updated the About dialog and the various strings around the app to reflect the name (and price) change: now, everything is “SndConverter Pro”.
• I check the version of the Help file against the app’s version, and alert the user if they don’t match. Otherwise, if a user accidentally uses an old help file with a newer SndConverter Pro (or maybe Lite), some or many of the balloons could be nonsensical.
• System 6 testing: added dialog centring under System 6 and fixed a few incompatiblity problems.
• New dumb-to-smart quote, display sound number and display sampling rate preferences.
• Three sound events: you can play a sound etc when the conversion is complete, the app needs some attention (e.g. downsampling or missing sampling rate info), or an error occurs. There are a number of options for what to play: nothing (silence), the system beep, the current sound (if the event occurs while loading a sound the sysbeep will play), speak some (user-defined) text using MacinTalk, or play one of the sounds installed in your system (or open suitcases).
• flasheridn on AOL said: “I shouldn't have to guess about sampling rates; you should give me an opportunity to play the sound.” I have now redone the sample rate dialog that appears when a sound doesn't have any sampling rate information in it (i.e. old SoundCap sounds). It now has radio buttons for the rates, an OK and Stop button, a Play button to listen to the sound at whichever rate is selected via the radio buttons, and a checkbox to use the specified rate for the remainder of the batch (for sounds that don't have one specified) without asking again. I hope this fulfils everyones wishes!
• Also changed the text in the progress dialog to make it more useful.
• The registration reminder dialog now appears.
• Time to upgrade feature: 4 months after the release date a dialog will appear suggesting the user looks for an upgrade. Repeats once a month after that. Includes checkbox to tell it to get lost. It won't put up the dialog the first time the app is run, and won't put it up if it couldn't previously write the prefs file, or if the system date is before the release date. I quite like this feature, and think I've done it in a very unobtrusive way.
Release 4; version 1.1, 11 May 1992:
• Added personalisation to the About dialog (though there is no hassle dialog, yet… I am evaluating whether I need one or not).
• Balloon help is now in a separate file.
• The animated (morphing) colour icons are in the same file, so users can reduce the amount of space taken by the application by removing the Help file.
• The colour icons have been improved. You will need to rebuild your Desktop file to see the new icons (which of course you do frequently, don’t you? <grin>).
• Also, several cosmetic changes have been done (e.g. alert and dialog buttons are now a better size and behave in a more standard way).
Release 3; version 1.0.2, 3 March 1992:
• Bug fix release.
• Fixed fault in the Open All button handling which caused it to fail when reading off a floppy (or volumes other than the default disk).
• Cosmetic change to the animated icon to avoid it flashing on B&W machines under System 7.x.
• Added some code so that alias files within a folder would be resolved.
• Fixed bug that caused SoundEdit files to not be closed and some memory used up if the sound was too big.
• A few minor cosmetic changes.
• Also rebuilt the app using the latest release of the compiler, which should improve compatibility.
Release 2; version 1.0.1, 12 February 1992:
• First international release.
• Fixed very obscure bug when moving to the trash under System 7. If you get a message saying “This is a bug”, please let me know. I’m reasonably sure it is fixed though.
Release 1; version 1.0, 10 February 1992:
• First public release.
First started work on SndConverter Pro: 2 December 1991.
