Sound Sensations!

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Text File | 1991-10-11 | 17.0 KB | 292 lines

____________________________ | | | CBEEP - DBEEP | | Replace BEEP With a Flash! | |____________________________| Copyright (C) 1991 >>-Swift-Ware-> Version 1.2 April 1991 I. Introduction CBEEP, DBEEP, and the associated files were designed to allow the replacement of the usual beep sound (which many programs use to get the user's attention) with a visual flash. Potential uses for such a capability are to allow a hearing-impaired person to sense the beep or to avoid disturbing normal-hearing people yet allow the program to signal the user. This is accomplished by replacing the code which generates the beep sound with new program instructions which replace the beep with a flash of selectable size and duration. Although the copyright has been retained, there is no charge for use of these programs and they may freely be copied and distributed to others as long as they are not modified and all files, including this documentation, are included. II. Installation and Use The primary programs in this package are CBEEP.COM and DBEEP.COM. They will usually be referred to without their .COM extensions for convenience. DBEEP is first used to produce a new renamed version of any program which has the beep replaced by a flash. Then CBEEP is loaded into the computer's memory. CBEEP is the program which actually makes the flash when called upon to do so by the debeeped program. Finally the debeeped version of the program is loaded and run. After some initial preparation, the use of the debeeped version of a program can be made completely automatic and transparent to the user. First, the program to be debeeped must be selected. Programs can be recognized by their file extension of .COM (for "command" or .EXE (for "executable"). DBEEP, CBEEP, and the program to be debeeped should all be placed in the same subdirectory. For simplicity, this may be the subdirectory in which the program to be debeeped was initially located. That subdirectory should next be made the current subdirectory. Then the debeeping program DBEEP should be started by entering its name from the DOS command line. If the program to be debeeped was NOISY.EXE in subdirectory C:\PROGRAMS, and if CBEEP and DBEEP were on a floppy disk inserted in floppy disk Drive A:, this might be done by something like C: CD \PROGRAMS COPY A:CBEEP.COM COPY A:DBEEP.COM DBEEP This will start execution of the debeeping program. DBEEP will display a menu where <F1> may be pressed to display a help screen, <F2> may be pressed to start the debeeping process, and <F3> may be pressed to install CBEEP in the computer. For now, let's wait a bit before installing CBEEP and go on to create the debeeped version of the program. Press <F2> and you will be prompted to enter the name of the program to be debeeped. In our example, the program was NOISY.EXE in subdirectory PROGRAMS on Drive C:, so enter C:\PROGRAMS\NOISY.EXE If you followed the previous instructions, the current subdirectory would have been C:\PROGRAMS, so the full path reference would not have been necessary, just entering NOISY.EXE would have been ok. Next you will be prompted for the name of the new (debeeped) version of the program which you want to create. Select any name with no more than eight letters in the name and use the same extension (the ".COM" or ".EXE") as was used in the original program. It is very important to use the same extension but the name should be different from the original name. In our case we might select the name NOTNOISY.EXE as our new program. After you enter the new program name, DBEEP will begin the debeeping process. You will see from the display on the screen that the process has begun and the display will indicate when the debeeping process has finished; this may take a minute or so. After DBEEP has finished, you may press <F3> to "launch" CBEEP. This places into the computer's memory the program which produces the flash when called upon to do so by the debeeped version of the program. As part of the process of installing or launching CBEEP, the CBEEP menu will be displayed which will allow selecting the size and duration of the flash. Press the number keys as indicated to select your preferred choice. Finally, after completing the creation of the debeeped program (which you have given a new name) and installing CBEEP, you are ready to exit from DBEEP which may be done by pressing the <Esc> key. You will now be back at the DOS prompt and may run your new debeeped version of the program by entering its new name. In our example, merely enter NOTNOISY. That's all there is to it. In some cases, you may see the message "NO BEEPERS FOUND" even though you know that the program produces beeps. In most cases, this will not cause a problem and the beeps will properly be intercepted and replaced by flashes. A further discussion of this will be found in the section for Advanced Topics. Once it has been created, it is not necessary to go through all the previous steps to run the debeeped program again. Normally CBEEP will stay in memory ready to do its job until the computer is rebooted or the power is turned off. The debeeped version of your program (i.e. NOTNOISY.EXE in the example above) will remain available for use. All you have to do to run the program a second time is to move to the proper subdirectory and enter the debeeped program's name again. In our example, C: CD \PROGRAMS NOTNOISY If the computer has been rebooted or the power has been turned off, it will be necessary to reload CBEEP in the computer's memory. This can be done by entering DBEEP from the command line and then pressing <F3> and continuing to install CBEEP as was done before. A shortcut which can be used if you remember the number of the menu item you used to select the flash size and duration is to skip the use of DBEEP and just enter CBEEP /n from the DOS command line, where for "n" you enter the menu item selection. For example, to get a large, 1/2 sec. flash, enter CBEEP /2. If you use the debeeped versions of your programs frequently, you may want to place the CBEEP /n command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file where it will cause CBEEP to be automatically installed each time you reboot or power up your computer. The previous instructions were written for use with a computer with a hard disk. If you have two floppy disks instead, the instructions will generally be the same except that you should replace "C:" with "B:" wherever it appears. You will, however, have to be sure there is enough room on the floppy in Drive B: to hold CBEEP, DBEEP, and the new debeeped version of your program. If you have only a single floppy disk, it is still possible to follow a similar process. If you are a reasonably experienced DOS user, you can probably figure out how to modify the above instructions. If you are not sufficiently experienced, it will probably be best to get help from a more experienced friend. IV. Advanced Topics The previous sections have been written assuming some familiarity with DOS on the part of the user, but that he does not have advanced knowledge. For the more advanced user, additional information, not usually needed, will be included in this section. CBEEP.COM is a terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) program which is called by the debeeped program. DBEEP.COM searches the original user's program and replaces all code which generates beeps with code which generates a software interrupt. Normally interrupt 60H is used, but CHGINT.COM may be used to select another interrupt if 60H causes interference with other users of the same interrupt. CBEEP, DBEEP, and CHGINT should be placed in the same subdirectory, and CHGINT run. That will display a menu allowing selection of an alternate interrupt number in the range 60H to 66H. You should be very careful about using interrupt 67H as it is used for LIM EMS (an Expanded Memory manager) in all versions of DOS beginning with DOS 2.0 although only officially reserved by DOS in DOS 4.0 and above. C/DBEEP should be compatible with all versions of DOS from DOS 2.0 on and should work with MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA, and VGA display adapters. If the space taken up by CBEEP is needed in order to run large applications or if there are conflicts with other TSRs, CBEEP may be uninstalled by entering CBEEP /U from the DOS command line. This can be done only if no other TSRs have been loaded after CBEEP. If you need to load additional TSRs after CBEEP and unload them (as well as CBEEP), you may want to look at TSR control programs such as PC Magazine's INSTALL and REMOVE or the well known MARK and RELEASE (usually contained in a compressed archive called TSRCOM.ARC or TSRCOM.ZIP) or their commercial equivalents such as POPDROP. If you want to suppress the messages output by CBEEP when it loads and unloads, you can redirect the output to NUL. For example CBEEP /1 > NUL will result in no output to the screen. The installation message can also be suppressed by adding "x" to the size/duration switch, CBEEP /1x. Beeps can be generated in several ways. The best-behaved method is to use DOS' BIOS services to send a BEL (character code 7) to the screen. An alternate method is directly to manipulate the hardware which controls the speaker. This is done by using the OUT instruction to change the two low order bits of port 61H to turn the speaker on and off. DBEEP looks for the code which generates such instructions and replaces it with a software interrupt (using either the default interrupt number of 60H or an alternate interrupt number selected via CHGINT), padding as needed with NOPs. A reasonableness check of surrounding data is made in order to distinguish code from data prior to replacing the beep codes. This technique for handling direct port writes was suggested by Dave Fallen's SILENCER program code. In some cases the message "NO BEEPERS FOUND" is produced by DBEEP even though the code being debeeped is known to produce beeps. This is generally caused by code which does not write directly to hardware ports but merely uses DOS or BIOS services to produce a beep by sending the BEL character to the screen. The interrupts used by these services are trapped by CBEEP and thus the beeps are properly converted into flashes even though no code is modified by DBEEP. The message "NO BEEPERS FOUND" thus indicates that no code replacement was necessary rather than that the program being debeeped doesn't have any beep-producing code. There are a few known limitations to this procedure. Compressed executable code will not generally allow the instructions to be properly identified. If the compression technique which has been used is known, it may be possible to uncompress the code, apply the debeeping program to the uncompressed version, and then recompress the debeeped version. Microsoft Windows code may cause problems. Programs which have been compressed can be identified (along with the compression technique used) by the utility CHK4COMP.EXE. Many commercial programs have been compressed by Microsoft's EXEPACK; these may be unpacked by using UPACKEXE.EXE. As of this writing, CHK4COMP could be obtained from CompuServe IBMSYS in CKH4.ZIP; UPACKEXE was also available from CompuServe IBMSYS in LZEX91.ZIP. C/DBEEP has not been tested for use on overlays. For standard overlays it may be possible to debeep the overlays just like a .COM or .EXE file. Borland's VROOMM (TM) overlays are known to cause problems (they are identifiable by the .VRM extension). In particular, the file Q.VRM in Quattro Pro 1.0 may not be debeeped using the standard method. Generally it is anticipated that for a hearing-impaired user, CBEEP will be installed by a line in AUTOEXEC.BAT and that the debeeped program will be called instead of the standard version, either through use of batch files or by renaming. In case the application program needs to be used in both a normal and a debeeped mode, both versions (with different names, of course) may be used at any time. The original code is never modified. V. Disclaimer The software and documentation in this packare are provided "As Is" without warranty of any kind. >>-Swift-Ware-> does not warrant, guarantee, or make any representations regarding the use, or the results of use, of this software. All risk taken in the use of this software is assumed by you, the user, and not by >>-Swift-Ware->, nor by any person or organization who may distribute this product. OTHER PROGRAMS by the AUTHOR: BOBCAT ($15.00) ....... Lets anyone manage their Files and Directories, with an easy press of a key you can copy, move delete, view, mark, create, edit, compress, - uncompress, format - plus enables the user to assign up to 20 of his or her commands or favorite programs to the menuing system and many more - features from within a window environment... MENU MAKER ($10.00) ... Makes it easy for anyone to create beautiful stand alone - 3D Text mode graphic shadow box window menus. Create up to 4 windows you can pop down by the press of a function key then highlight your commands or program names via menu bar or - mouse to activate them. REDEFINE ($10.00) ..... Enables assigning up to 20/60 character command - strings to any of the Alt + Number keys or function keys F1 to F10 plus recall your last 10 DOS commands. Also includes many utilities - View files, Copy, Delete, Rename, Show All Paths, NotePad, and many more in an easily Deactivated Pop Down TSR. GRAB4 ($10.00) ....... TSR that makes it an easy task to capture text mode screens from within most any running program. Enables saving screens as Executables including - their color values, or save as a readable text mode ASCII file, you can also edit any current or saved screen and capture or append to another file. Easily Deactivated.