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The Datafile PD-CD 3
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!TapeDeck
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1995-08-02
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186 lines
Tape Deck
=========
by JJF
** THIS PROGRAM IS SHAREWARE **
This is a Freeware demo of 'Tape Deck', which lacks options to load or save
the index to disc. It is freely copiable by anyone, and the author
encourages you to spread copies of it to as many people as possible.
If you want the full version, which includes load and save options, please
send £2 (as a cheque payable to 'J. Farmer', postal order, or postage
stamps) and a blank disc to :
JJF,
49 Hollyberry Close,
Winyates Green,
Redditch,
Worcs,
B98 OQT
Please note that the author is using this release to test the Shareware
market for possible future productions, and if nobody registers (ie sends
him £2), then he may well sell anything else he writes commercially for
about £29.95.
INTRODUCTION
The key to writing a successful program, so I continually remind myself, is
to find a gap in the market and exploit it ruthlessly, raking in the cash
and accumulating the moolah. Well, I'm still looking for that gap, but,
well, maybe one day I'll find it. Then, you will walk in the street, and
the mere mention of my name will cause strangers to spontaeneously start to
give you anything you want.
Can you stand reading this for the remainder of this document? I doubt it,
so I'm going to start talking normally and continue talking normally until
I've finished telling you all about this program.
Honest.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
I don't know about you, but I have a vast number of soundtrackers,
coconizers, digital symphonies, etc, spread over a vast number of floppy
discs, and no easy way to keep track of them. I've been using Menon, but,
let's face it, it wasn't designed for that purpose, so a new solution was
required.
As you may already have guessed, Tape Deck is that solution; a tune
indexing program that will neatly index trackers (most formats), coconizers
and symphonies and even play them back at a click of a mouse!
HOW DO I USE IT?
Double-click on the !TapeDeck icon in the directory viewer and it will
install itself on the icon bar. Clicking the MENU button on this icon will
bring up the 'icon bar menu', from where you can call up all the windows
that control the program.
INDEXING
You can bring up the index by selecting the 'Tune List' item from the icon
bar menu. Tape Deck works on the principle of having a number of lists,
each of which can contain up to fifty trackers. Clicking MENU over the
tune list window brings up the 'Tune List' menu. From here, you can call
up a different list (from the 'View Lists' submenu), rename the current list
(via the 'Rename List') option or sort all the tunes in the current list
into some kind of order.
If you double-click on a tracker file or drag it to the icon bar icon, it
will be added to the currently displayed tune list (presuming there is
sufficient room). Clicking on this tune's entry in the index will allow you
access to the previously greyed-out 'Tune' submenu.
From here, you can change the name of the tune, or it's author, or you can
move it to a different list, or delete it from the index altogether. You
can also open the directory viewer that contained it.
You can also save all of the current index to floppy or hard disc by using
the 'save' option. This works in the standard way, as practiced by !Draw,
!Paint, etc, so should be no mystery to you.
PLAYING
If you hadn't guessed, you can play a tune by clicking on the "Play" button
opposite it's entry in the tune list. There is one of those nice control
windows, with play, rewind, pause, etc, buttons on it, which can be got at
by selecting 'Control' from the icon bar menu, or by clicking SELECT on the
icon bar icon.
Selecting 'Monitor' from the icon bar menu (or clicking ADJUST on the icon),
will either bring up some of those nice VU bars, or an even nicer message
telling you that there aren't any for that type of tune.
CYCLING
Doing this will get you into shape! However, the three buttons in the
bottom left of the control window have a different action. They cycle
through all the tunes in the currently viewed list (first button), in all of
the lists (second button), or all of the tunes in a random order (third
button). This is to save you the trouble of having to choose which tune
you want to listen to...
CONFIG
The rather interesting-looking 'Config' submenu on the icon bar menu
currently contains only one option - 'ArcFS', which may be ticked or
unticked - select it to toggle this. This is to eliminate the possibility
of a 'Too Many Discs' error occurring, which happens when you have tunes
stored in lots of ArcFS archives, which are left open after the tune is
loaded. This can be an annoying error when cycling through many tunes, so,
if this option is ticked, EVERY open ArcFS archive is closed as each tune
plays. This can, however, be very annoying, so it's default setting is
off.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
Ten-to-eleven on a Sunday evening.
DO IT THE EASY WAY
Tape Deck works by first loading in four popular tune playing modules -
the Digital Symphony player, Que The Music, the Coconizer player, and the
good 'ole Soundtracker player. The author did not write these, and nor
is he in any way responsible for them.
This method, however, can badly fragment the module area, wasting vast
swathes of memory. To counteract this, the author suggests an RMA manager.
There is at least one available in the PD world - the author will throw in
a copy if you register...
KNOWN LIMITATIONS (ie bugs)
1) Krisalis music modules will not play.
2) Occaisionally, after stopping a tune that is being played by the Que the
Music module, a continuous beep will be heard. The solution is to load
in another tune that uses this module (note that some tunes said to
be 'Tracker' in the 'Tune List' window use this module, and some use
the Soundtracker player module. Basically, Que the Music has the VU bars
on the Monitor screen, whilst the Soundtracker module does not). The
author assumes that the problem is with the Que the Music module...
3) The Rewind, Fast-Forward and Pause buttons do not work for Coconizer
songs (I think the problem is that I don't understand the Coconizer
module properly...)
4) The Volume control does not work for Coconizer songs nor anything played
with the Soundtracker module.
5) Some trackers cannot be played. This can be recognized in that they give
their tune name as "MUSX", or similar, in the tune display window. This
is a mystery to the author...
6) Tunes stored in ArcFS archives can only be played if ArcFS is loaded
first.
RELEASE HISTORY
Version Details
1.00 The first version released.
1.01 Minor bug fix
1.02 Slight modification to make it easier to update the program. Also
now supports interactive help.
1.03 Minor modification in attempt to get the monitor bit to exit
properly on a Risc PC. Whether it works is unknown...
1.04 Fixed a bug in the deletion routine - it previously crashed if
you tried to remove the fiftieth tune from a list...