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- - @(#)ANSWERS 1.2 8/31/92 -
-
- COMMON "WORKMAN" QUESTIONS (with answers!)
-
- 1. Why doesn't it play through the workstation's speaker?
- 2. How do I label several tracks in a row as part of the same song?
- 3. Can different tracks be by different artists?
- 4. Why does it eat more and more memory as it runs?
-
- ---
- 1. Why doesn't it play through the workstation's speaker?
-
- The short answer: Because it can't. The CD-ROM drive provides no way to read
- the audio data from the CD to the computer. This is a limitation in the
- hardware. The workaround is to run an audio patch cable (available at any
- decent stereo store) from the drive's headphone jack to the workstation's
- audio input; then run "cat /dev/audio > /dev/audio".
-
- ---
- 2. How do I label several tracks in a row as part of the same song?
-
- There are several special symbols you can put into a track title to alter
- aspects of the main window's display. The most important is "//" (two
- forward slashes in a row.) This splits the title up into segments. Usually,
- each segment is displayed on its own line in the main window; a common use
- is to enter titles that are too big to fit on one line. For instance,
- you might enter a title like:
-
- The really really really really really//really really really long song
-
- That would add a second line of track title information to the main window,
- with the text after the "//"; the text before "//" would go on the first
- line of the window. The "//" itself is never displayed.
-
- If a segment starts with "+", the rest of the text in the segment is displayed
- in place of the disc name on the main window. This is most often used when
- several tracks are related in some way (such as movements of a symphony.)
- For example, you might enter:
-
- +Symphony No. 2, op. 40//Allegro assai
-
- That title line has two segments. The second segment is displayed as the
- track title. Since the first segment begins with "+", the CD's title is
- replaced with "Symphony No. 2, op. 40" while the track in question is
- playing.
-
- As a shortcut, if a segment contains only a "+" character and nothing
- else, the "+" segment from the previous track is used. So you might
- have a group of tracks labeled:
-
- +Piano concerto in G//Allegro
- +//Andante
- Presto//+
- +//Allegro assai - Andante -//Moderato marcato
-
- The third line is to demonstrate that the order of segments isn't important;
- "+" can come anywhere. The fourth track has the "Piano concerto in G"
- title, as well as a two-line track title.
-
- If you're not sure what the result will look like when you enter a
- title with several segments, just click on the track's selector button
- on the main window and the title will be displayed, even if the CD isn't
- playing.
-
- ---
- 3. Can different tracks be by different artists?
-
- Yes, using the same facilities described in answer #2. There is a second
- special character that can come at the front of a segment, "@". It causes
- the artist name on the main window display to be replaced with the rest of
- the text in the segment while the track in question is playing.
-
- "@" behaves in much the same way as "+" (e.g. if it's alone in a segment,
- the previous track's "@" segment is used.)
-
- A compilation CD's track titles might look like this:
-
- @Charles Gounod//+Ballet music from "Faust"//Allegretto
- @//+//Adagio
- @//+//Allegretto
- @//+//Moderato maestoso
- @//+//Moderato con moto
- @//+//Allegretto
- @//+//Allegro vivo
- @Friedrich Smetana//Symphonic poem "The Moldau"
- @Anton Dvorak//Slavonic Dance No. 2 in E minor
- @Adolphe Adam//Overture from "If I were King"
-
- ---
- 4. Why does it eat more and more memory as it runs?
-
- There is a bug in XView 3.0 (fixed in 3.0.1 and higher) that causes the
- library to lose a little bit of memory whenever an image is destroyed.
- Unfortunately, this happens twice a second while the About popup is
- displayed. If the About popup is left up overnight, the program can get
- bigger than you might expect. WorkMan doesn't update the About popup
- unless it's actually displayed onscreen, so unpin (dismiss) it when
- you're not using it and the program will stop growing.
-
-