This software is free. It may be freely distributed as long as it is not altered in any way and the distributor does not profit in any way from the transfer. You cannot sell this software without the express written consent of Allen Prescott of Allen's Fine Software. My aim in this product is not to make money. If you send me money I will donate it to the Boy Scouts of America. My aim is to have the satisfaction of knowing that I have written a program that many people find useful. If you use it and like it please take the time to tell me so.
ΓÇóΓÇó General Info
SNDPatch is a CDEV that allows you to assign sounds from the System File to events that occur. The events that are currently supported are Disk Insert, Disk Eject, File Delete, System Startup, and System Shutdown. SNDPatch looks best on a color Mac set to 256 colors but will perform correctly on any Macintosh that supports 'snd ' resources and the Shutdown Manager. You assign a sound to an event by calling up the SNDPatch CDEV and choosing a sound for each event. The default is no sound for any event. When you call up the CDEV a pop up menu will appear for each event. Simply click on the name of the sound and a menu will pop up to allow you to change the sound assigned to that event. All 'snd ' resources installed in the System File of the default volume are available. After selecting your new sounds you must click on the 'Save Settings' button. If you do not click on this button none of your changes will be saved. If you close SNDPatch without saving the settings a warning dialog will appear giving you one last chance to save the settings. Each time the designated event occurs the designated sound will be played. I encourage you to play with it and get a better feel for how it works.
ΓÇóΓÇó The Sound Mover
The sound mover is new to version 2.0. It allows you to move ΓÇÿsnd ΓÇÿ resources from one file to another. When you first call it up the active system file will be open on the left and all ΓÇÿsnd ΓÇÿ resources that are in it will be displayed. If you wish to make sounds available just open the file that contains the ΓÇÿsnd ΓÇÿ resource in the box on the right, select the sounds that you wish to move, and click on the move button. This will move them into your system file where they will be available for all things, such as changing your beep sound. Note that they are copied into your system file so if you leave the original file on the same disk you now have two copies of this sound on your disk. As these can be large resources I suggest that you manage such duplication wisely. No restrictions are placed on the types of files that can be opened. If you attempt to open a file that does not contain a resource fork you will be issued a warning. If you wish to create a resource fork sound mover will do this for you. I do not suggest it unless you are sure that you know what you are doing. The rest of the items in the dialog are self explanatory. I suggest that you play with them to get a feel for how they work.
************WARNING************
THE SOUND MOVER UTILITY CAN MODIFY YOUR SYSTEM FILE. USE IT WITH CAUTION.
ΓÇóΓÇó Hypercard Sounds
At this time the sound mover only supports format 1 ΓÇÿsnd ΓÇÿ resources. This means that you cannot move Hypercard sounds with the sound mover. Well, you can move them but they will not play. Hypercard sounds are format 2 resources. I doubt that I will ever support format 2 resources. See the comment at the end of this document.
ΓÇóΓÇó Technical Info
SNDPatch patches three traps to perform this function for you. The first is trap $A00F PBMountVol. The second is $A00E PBUnmountVol. The third is $A009 PBDelete. Whenever an application calls any of these traps the designated sound will be played and then the real trap routine will be called. If you have a hard disk system the Disk Insert sound may be played several times on system startup and the Disk Eject sound may be played on system shutdown after the Shutdown sound. The startup sound is played whenever INIT31 loads the SNDPatch INIT code. The shutdown sound is played when the shutdown code is invoked and before any disks are dismounted. The SNDPatch code creates a file in the system folder of the startup volume called "SNDPatch Settings". Currently this file is read any time a sound is played. Future versions may keep the current sound data in memory.
ΓÇóΓÇó Contacting the Author
There are three ways that you can contact the author. The first, and preferred way, is to leave me a message on the Compuserve Information Service at ID 71250,1722. The second is to call my office between the hours of 7:30 AM and 4:00 PM at (504)389-6125. Please contact me if you have bug reports or suggestions for improvements to the program. If you wish to contact me after hours you may leave a message on my answer machine. Written correspondence, preferred for bug reports, may be sent to
Allen's Fine Software
4743 Williamsburg Drive
Baton Rouge, La. 70817
ΓÇóΓÇó Credits
The SNDPatch INIT code is written entirely in MPW assembler. Thanks to Apple for providing this superior program development system. The SNDPatch CDEV code is written entirely in Lightspeed C. Many thanks to Michael Kahl and all of the good folks at the Think Technologies Division of Symantec Inc. for providing this superior development system.
Beta testing was primarily provided by Mike Spalding of the Software Development Group of Boulder, CO and Jeff Bock. Jeff also provided consulting on the user interface and much encouragement. I also used some of Jeffs code for reference in this scrolling info box. Many thanks as well to Michael Kahl, Jorg Brown(jbx), Jon Hueras, and all of the good folks on Compuserve for advice on technical matters.
ΓÇóΓÇó Errata
- If you are using a sound compression utility, such as Fifth Generation Systems SUITCASE II product, then the INIT that decompresses the sounds must be loaded before the SNDPatch code or the startup sound will not be played. Renaming SNDPatch to ZSNDPatch will fix this problem.
- If you place the control panel in the background and delete the settings file before closing the SNDPatch CDEV you can confuse it. To avoid this problem do not delete the SNDPatch Settings file while the SNDPatch CDEV is active.
SNDPatch has been in circulation for about six months now and I have received no comments. If this continues this will be the last version.
