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1994-01-11
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01-11-94
DMP Control Center v1.6 Documentation
-------------------------------------
I'll try to make this short and simple.
I made this program because I love the Dual Module Player (DMP) written by
Otto Chrons and the Protected Module Player(PMP) written by Jussi Lahdenniemi
and Otto Chrons. In my opinion, they are the best .MOD players in existence.
They also play .669, .S3M, .AMF, .STM, .NST, and .MTM files, as well as some
other music formats. They support practically every sound card and have
incredible sound quality. The only main difference between the two is that
PMP uses XMS while DMP uses EMS. Anyway, these programs are lacking in only
one item: there is no shell where you can select files. I have seen a couple
of other DMP shell programs, and I didn't like them, so I made my own.
I. Command-line options:
-------------------------
dmpcc </NE> </?> <directory to begin in>
No options are necessary. Don't type the < and the >.
/NE stands for NO EMS. Otherwise the program will attempt to use EMS for
the overlay file if it is available.
/? gives a very small help screen
II. In-program options:
------------------------
H = help
P or ENTER = play current file
D = delete current file or remove highlighted subdirectory if it is empty
R = rename current file
C = copy current file
M = move current file
L = log onto new drive
F = change filespec mask
ENTER = change directory (if highlight bar is on a directory)
TAB = toggle between INTERNAL and EXTERNAL decompression
SPACE = tag or untag current file and advance highlight bar
ALT-T = tag or untag all files
ALT-D = delete all tagged files
ALT-C = copy all tagged files
ALT-M = move all tagged files
ALT-P = play all tagged files normally (sends a listfile to the player)
CONTROL-P = play all tagged files in 1 x 1 mode
*********
note: I put this option in because occasionally, DMP and PMP will have
problems if there are a lot of files in memory. 1 x 1 mode will
play a file, wait a moment and give you a chance to abort by
hitting ESC, and then move onto the next file, eliminating any
memory problems.
*********
ALT-X = quit DMP Control Center
FUNCTION KEYS F1 - F9 = choose 1 of the 9 possible configurations you
have chosen in the DMPCC.CFG configuration file
III. Configuration File:
-------------------------
The file dmpcc.cfg MUST exist in the same directory as the dmpcc.exe file,
and it must contain at least one useable player configuration line. 'Player
configuration' means all the information needed to run an external program,
such as DMP or PMP. You can have up to 9 player configurations in this file.
Lines starting with ; or { or a space will be ignored. On each player config-
uration line, put an executable file followed by it's command-line parameters.
have provided examples of player configurations in the configuration file
already. Here is an example of 2 player configuration lines:
c:\pas16\dmp\dmp.exe -c4 -i5 -d5 -s44100
c:\pas16\pmp\pmp.exe -c4 -i5 -d5
If you wish, you can specify the default filespec mask for DMP Control Center
in the configuration file as well. If no values for this are entered in the
configuration file, DMP Control Center will start out with the mask *.*.
Capitalization does not matter. Examples:
default_file_mask=*.mod
default_file_mask=song.*
default_file_mask=*.*
You can also specify in the config file the default directory for DMP Control
Center to start in. This can be bypassed by providing a directory in the
command line. Capitalization does not matter. Example:
default_directory=c:\pas16\mod
If you want to be able to play archived modules, unless you will only be
using EXTERNAL decompression, you must specify the locations of your archive
program(s) in the configuration file. With external decompression, as
explained below, the program being called, such as DMP, will take care of all
of the decompressing of archived files. For each archive program you want to
use, you must include the entire path and the executable file for that
program. You can also specify the drive on which DMP Control Center will make
a temporary directory to uncompress files into. If no drive is specified,
then the drive where DMP Control Center first starts playing from will be
used, specified either in the DEFAULT_DIRECTORY line of the configuration file
or in the command-line. This directory will be made and removed each time the
user plays an archived file or files. Capitalization does not matter.
Example:
zip=c:\util\pkzip\pkunzip.exe
arj=c:\util\arj\arj.exe
lha=c:\util\lha\lha.exe
temp=d:
You only have to include lines for those archive programs which you will be
using. Only PKZIP, ARJ, and LHA compression techniques are supported.
To specify how DMP Control Center will manage decompression of archive files
when it first starts, add one of the following lines:
internal_decompression=false
internal_decompression=true
'True' specifies INTERNAL decompression, meaning that DMP Control Center will
deompress files with the archive information you included in the configuration
file, while 'false' specifies EXTERNAL decompression, meaning that when the
user tries to play an archived file, DMP Control Center will not handle the
decompression at all, leaving the entire responsibility up to the external
player program, such as DMP. You can change this value with the TAB key while
in DMP Control Center.
IV. Archive Support:
---------------------
DMP Control Center will play files which have been compressed with PKZIP, ARJ,
and LHA. All files in an archive file which match the pre-extension part of
the archive filename will be played. So if you try to play the file SONG.ZIP,
all files inside SONG.ZIP which match the mask SONG.* will be played. DMP
Control Center will make a temporary directory on the drive which the user has
selected in the configuration file. If no drive is selected, the startup
drive will be used. This is where files will be extracted to in order to be
played. If there is insufficient room on that drive, then only the files
which were able to be extracted will be played. After they are played, the
extracted files will be deleted and the temporary directory will be removed.
You must include the location of any archive programs you wish to use in the
dmpcc.cfg file. This is explained in detail in the above section,
"Configuration File." A final note - because most module players, such as
PMP, cannot handle archived files on their own, DMP Control Center will NOT
play archived files with the ALT-P mode. This is because when you hit ALT-P,
a listfile is sent to the player program and if the listfile contains archived
files, the player will probably crash if it does not have archive capabilit-
ies. CONTROL-P and P will still work all the time. If you hit ALT-P and some
of the tagged files have extensions which DMP Control Center recognize as
belonging to archived files, no files will be played and an error message will
appear on the screen. However, right after I added archive suppport to DMP
Control Center, it was added to DMP v2.76 too. So I decided to let the user
be in control of which program handles the uncompressing - DMP(EXTERNAL
DECOMPRESSION) or DMP Control Center(INTERNAL DECOMPRESSION). You can use the
TAB key to switch between the two while in DMP Control Center, and you can
specify which one you want at startup with the configuration file. If you are
using external decompression, meaning that the player which DMP Control Center
is calling is taking care of the decompression, then you are able to use ALT-P
to play multiple archived files. If, for some reason, you are using a player
other than DMP to play your modules, such as PMP, and some of the files which
you will be playing are archived, you will want to use INTERNAL decompression,
since PMP cannot, as of this writing, handle decompression on its own.
V. Other Notes:
----------------
You do not have to be in the directory of dmpcc.exe to run the program. The
maximum number of files that DMP Control Center can read in one directory is
1400. Any files beyond this amount will be ignored. This shouldn't be too
much of a problem. DO NOT try to use compress DMPCC.EXE with a program like
PKLITE, because it will destroy the overlay. (PKLITE will not let you
compress it, but other run-time compression programs will.) I have already
compressed it with PKLITE before adding the overlay file anyway.
VI. Bugs:
----------
The only bug I am aware of is that if a directory is hidden or read-only,
DMP Control Center will read it as a normal file. I tried to get this to
work right, but I haven't figured it out yet. If you can help me on this,
please leave me email at my Internet address(below). Thanks.
VII. Where I Can Be Reached:
-----------------------------
PLEASE report ANY bugs, problems, suggestions, compliments, etc... to my
Internet email address: klenk@cs.odu.edu
This program is free, but of course I'll take all your money if you want...
Revisions:
----------
v1.6 01-11-94 : Fixed a bug with moving multiple read-only files when the
files were overwriting other read-only files. Reduced the
size of the .EXE file by almost 10k. More minor bugs fixed.
I also slightly optimized the code, allowing me to raise the
number of files which can be read in each directory back up
to 1400.
v1.5 12-07-93 : Well, right after I added archive support to DMPCC, Otto
Chrons added it to DMP v2.76. So, I figured that I should
give the user the option of whether to use the decompression
programs defined in the dmpcc.cfg file OR to let DMP take
care of the decompression. The only reason to put DMP
Control Center in charge of decompression(internal
decompression) as opposed to DMP(external decompression) is
if you are using a player such as PMP which cannot handle
archived files on its own. If you choose external
decompression, you can use ALT-P to play multiple archived
files.
v1.4 12-04-93 : MANY improvements. Interface redesigned, MUCH faster. Sorry
that it was slow before, but I have a 486-50 and didn't
even notice. A few bugs in the scroll routine are now fixed.
Also fixed - a bug in which if you tried to remove an empty
directory which was the current directory on that drive, the
directory didn't get removed. And yet another bug: If the
default directory had more than 12 characters, only the first
12 would be used. Fixed. And the major improvement to this
version is archive support. (Only PKZIP, ARJ, and LHA).
Read about how to play archived modules in the doc file.
The overlay file (dmpcc.ovr) is no longer needed. It is now
stored in the .EXE file, extracted at run-time, then deleted.
The ENTER key can now be used just like P to play one file.
The only drawback to this version is that I have reduced the
number of files which can be read in one directory to 1200,
down from 1400. This is due to memory being reduced by the
other features which I have improved and added. I'll try to
fix this in the future.
v1.3 10-07-93 : Fixed a small bug with the scroll routine. Fixed a very
obscure bug in the procedure which reads the command-line
parameters, which would occur if 2 or more \ characters were
placed together. Sped up the screen-draw routines.
v1.2 09-22-93 : I received a suggestion to increase the maximum number of
files that DMPCC can handle. It used to be 450. It is now
1400. This should really be enough for anyone. If you have
more than 1400 mods, let me know. Now you can use a semi-
colon (;) as a 'remark' indicator in the config file as well
as a { or a space. Fixed a bug with trying to copy or move a
file to a drive that had insufficient space.
v1.1 09-20-93 : Fixed a bug in the move and copy procedures, where if the
user tried to copy or move a file(s) to the same directory,
the file would be reduced to 0 bytes.
v1.0 09-14-93 : First public release.