FREQUENLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT DES-TRACKER
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   The following questions are (for the most part) listed in order by the
frequency they are asked, with the most frequently asked questions first.

   A lot of questions are not listed here, as they resulted in answers along
the lines of "Beats the hell out of me", which eventually led to bug fixes.


Q: Can you write a version of DTC that uses Intuition and has a window with
   buttons for all the commands, plus a built-in jukebox and scope display?

A: Why, of course you can.  DES-Tracker is fully programmable, allowing you
   to write programs just such as the one you described. :)



Q: The Loop Intent flag doesn't seem to work.  I clear it for a song and then
   save the song to disk, but when I reload it and play it from DTC, it still
   loops.  What's the prob?

A: There is no prob.  DTC is simply a program that allows you to invoke the
   functions of the DES-Tracker library from the command line.  DTC itself
   performs no analysis of the song once it is loaded.  Since the DES-Tracker
   library doesn't use the Loop Intent flag for itself, the flag has no effect
   when the song is loaded and played from DTC.  The purpose of the Loop Intent
   flag is so that *your* programs that *you* write that use DES-Tracker can
   load a song module and then examine the Loop Intent bit *yourself*, so 
   that *you* can decide how you will play the song based on the Loop Intent
   flag.  The Jukebox.rexx program, if it sees the Loop Intent flag set when
   it loads a song, will play the song for 2 iterations instead of 1, and fade
   the song out on the second iteration.  But that's not necessarily how you
   *have* to interpret the flag.



Q: Gee, Darren.  Do you really program in assembly using mixed upper and lower
   case?  Or did you just do that to make the accompanying source code look
   pretty?  Like, what's wrong with you?

A: That's three questions.  But yes, I really do program in mixed case like that.
   I blame it on Mike Benna (of Mindspan Technologies, Inc).  When I was working
   with him at Distinctive Software on HardBall! (for the Atari ST, he was
   converting it, I was writing a music driver for it), I saw his code and it
   was all mixed case.  Somehow, Mike convinced me that code is much easier
   to read that way.  I tried it and that was that.  Now I can't help it.
   I now use mixed case without even thinking about it.  I do agree with
   Mike, though.  It does seem easier to read than all lower or all upper
   case.



Q: Why did you write DES-Tracker, Darren?

A: Beats the hell out of me. :)  Just kidding.  Actually I wrote DES-Tracker for
   the same reason that anybody else writes a MOD file player.  That is, I am
   completely insane.  As a matter of fact, you can determine just how insane a
   MOD-player programmer is simply by the number of MOD file formats the player
   supports. ;)



Q: Will we see another release of DES-Tracker after this 2.00 release?

A: Not bloody likely, unless bugs are found or somebody's willing to pay me to
   work on it.  I'm moving on to bigger and better things.  My IFF FORM TRKR
   work is starting to take off, so I'm leaving DES-Tracker as it now is
   (r2.00).  I hope you've all enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) using it.
   It sure was fun to write.  Mostly.  :)



Q: Hey, why'd you get rid of the pitch spectrum display on LScope and replace
   them with those oscilloscopes?

A: Because I was bored.  This is about the only reason I do *any* work on
   LScope.  It's a break from the dull drudgery of thinking about fine tempo
   and calculating song play time. :)


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