Subject: ANNOUNCE: xmcd v1.3 Motif CD Player
From: [email-masked] (Ti Kan)
Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 15:08:59 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.sys.dec,alt.cd-rom

[]

			--------------------
			X M C D  version 1.3
			--------------------
			     by Ti Kan

I am pleased to announce the release of xmcd version 1.3, a package
including xmcd, an X11/Motif-based CD player utility and cda, a command-
line driven, non-graphical CD audio player.   This software represents
many months of development and fine tuning, as well as a beta test
program involving many dedicated individuals around the world.

The source code of this version of xmcd and cda supports the following
operating systems environments:

	1.  Apple A/UX (on Apple Macintosh)
	    - A/UX version 3.0 or later
	      (with devscsi module installed)

	2.  Data General DG/UX (on DG AViiON)
	    - DG/UX version 5.4R3.00 or later

	3.  DEC OSF/1 (on DEC Alpha AXP)
	    - DEC OSF/1 version 1.3 or later

	4.  DEC Ultrix (on DECstation)
	    - DEC Ultrix version 4.3 or later
	      (with SCSI CAM installed)

	5.  Hewlett Packard HP-UX (on HP Series 700 PA-RISC)
	    - HP-UX Release 9.x or later

	6.  IBM AIX (on IBM RS/6000 Power/PowerPC and compatibles from Bull)
	    - AIX version 3.2.x
	    - AIX version 4.x

	7.  Linux (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    - Linux SCSI kernel 0.99plxx or later with
	      XFree86 (X11R5) + Motif 1.2

	8.  SCO UNIX System V Release 3.2 (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    - SCO Open Desktop Version 2.x (X11R4 or X11R5 server)
	    - SCO Open Desktop Version 3.x
	    - SCO UNIX 3.2v4.x with XFree86 (X11R5) + Motif 1.2

	9.  Silicon Graphics IRIX (on SGI)
	    - IRIX version 4.x
	    - IRIX version 5.x

	10. Stratus FTX System V Release 4 (on Stratus PA-RISC)
	    - FTX version 3.x

	11. SunOS (on Sun Sparc)
	    - SunOS 4.1.x / Solaris 1.x

	12. SunOS System V Release 4 (on Sun Sparc)
	    - SunOS 5.x / Solaris 2.x

	13. SunOS System V Release 4 (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    - SunOS 5.x / Solaris 2.x

	14. UNIX System V Release 4.0 (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    (Note: 4.0.3 or later recommended)
	    - AT&T
	    - Consensys
	    - Dell
	    - ESIX
	    - ISC
	    - Microport
	    - Micro Station Technology
	    - UHC
	    - USL

	15. UNIX System V Release 4.0 (on Motorola 88k)
	    - Motorola

	16. UNIX System V Release 4.2 (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    - Consensys
	    - Information Foundation
	    - Novell/Univel UnixWare 1.x
	    - Onsite
	    - USL

	17. UNIX System V Release 4.2MP (on Intel x86 PC-compatible)
	    - Novell/USL UnixWare 2.x

This release of xmcd features the following:

	- Standard functions: Stop, Play, Pause, Next/Previous Track,
	  Next/Previous Index, Fast forward/rewind with audio sample,
	  Eject and On/off.
	- Direct track access keypad and track-warp slider controls.
	- Volume control with selectable taper characteristics.
	- Balance control.
	- Channel routing control: Select between normal stereo,
	  reversed stereo, mono-L, mono-R, or mono-L+R.
	- Track/Index/Time display: Selectable to display elapsed time,
	  remaining track time, or remaining disc time.
	- Status display: for current play status, A->B mode, program
	  mode, CD database.
	- Shuffle (random) play function.
	- Repeat function with iteration counter.
	- Sample function: Play a few seconds of each track.
	- A->B function: Repeat from selectable point A and B.
	- Eject inhibit function: To prevent someone from ejecting the
	  disc by pressing the button on the drive.
	- Automation options on CD load, eject, play completion and
	  program exit.
	- Track Program function: Play tracks in custom order.
	- CD database function: Allows you to store CD title/track titles
	  in database, and associate each disc with a play program.
	  Displays the current playing disc title/track information.
	  In addition, you can enter and display arbitrary text associated
	  with the disc or each track, such as band information, lyrics,
	  etc.
	- CD database entry send: Contribute CD database entries to
	  a central archive via Internet electronic mail.
	- Main window button face labels can be configured to display
	  pictorial symbols, or text with hotkey mnemonics.
	- The complete application can be operated via the keyboard with
	  full support for keyboard traversal and hotkeys.
	- All labels and messages can be customized to non-English
	  languages via X resources in the .Xdefaults file.
	- All colors and many other functionality are user-customizable
	  using X resource settings.
	- On-line help information.
	- Attractive, intuitive-to-use Motif user interface.
	- Device-specific configuration files to make xmcd adaptible
	  to various brands of CD-ROM drives.

Xmcd uses the Motif toolkit to achieve a pleasing appearance, such that
it actually looks and feels like a real CD player for all basic
functions, yet takes advantage of the GUI and window system to make
programming and CD database functions easy.

Currently, the cda utility offers almost the same functionality as
xmcd except the FF, REW, Sample and A->B features are not available.
Also, the CD database is read-only via cda (no updates).

This release of xmcd and cda should work with the following CD-ROM
drives:

	Apple
		CD SC+, CD-150, CD-300, CD-300i
	Chinon
		CDS-431, CDX-431, CDS-435, CDX-435, CDS-535, CDX-535
	Compaq
		CDU-561, CR-503BCQ
	DEC
		RRD42, RRD43
	Hitachi
		CDR-1650S, CDR-1750S, CDR-1950S, CDR-3650, CDR-3750,
		CDR-6750
	IBM
		7210-001

	NEC
		CDR-72, CDR-74, CDR-77, CDR-80, CDR-82, CDR-84,
		CDR-38, CDR-74-1, CDR-84-1,
		CDR-400 (Multispin 3X), CDR-500 (Multispin 3X),
		CDR-510 (Multispin 3X), CDR-600 (Multispin 3X),
		CDR-900 (4XPro)
	Pioneer
		DRM-600, DRM-600A, DRM-610, DRM-602X, DRM-604X,
		DRM-1804X
	Plextor/Texel
		DM-3024, DM-5024, DM-3028, DM-5028, 4Plex
	Procom
		CDT4-3X, CDT4-DS, CDT4-MX, CDT7-3X, CDT7-DS,
		DSP-DR0020, ICD-MX, MCD-DS, MCDN-3X, SICD-DS,
		SICDN-3X, SXCD-DS, SXCDN-3X
	Sony
		CDU-541, CDU-561, CDU-6111, CDU-6211, CDU-7211,
		CDU-7811, CDU-8002, CDU-8003, CDU-8003A, CDU-8012
	Sun
		CD-ROM 411
	Toshiba
		XM-3101, XM-3201, XM-3301, XM-3401, XM-4101, XM-8100

	Other SCSI-2 compliant CD-ROM drives

The source code release of xmcd/cda version 1.3 is available via
Internet anonymous FTP.  Location:

	(Instructions)
	ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmcd/xmcd-1.3.README
	(gzip'd tar archive)
	ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmcd/xmcd-1.3.tar.gz

An xmcd CD database is also available via anonymous FTP:

	(Instructions)
	ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmcd/xmcd-cddb.README
	(gzip'd tar archive)
	ftp.x.org:/contrib/applications/xmcd/xmcd-cddb.tar.gz

Both packages require the "gunzip" (GNU unzip) utility to uncompress.
The source code to gzip/gunzip can be found on various FTP sites
(such as prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu).

This CD database is periodically updated with more entries, and you are
encouraged to contribute to this database by using the "Send" feature
in xmcd.

Binary releases of xmcd and cda for certain OS environments are also
available from the author.   Please write to "[email-masked]" for more
information.

Changes since previous release:

CD-ROM drive support changes:
    - Added support for the DEC RRD43 CD-ROM drive.

OS Support changes:
    - IBM AIX 4.x is now supported.
    - Fixed a misplaced line in libdi.d/configure.sh that caused
      the default device node path to be set wrong under the IBM AIX
      and DEC OSF/1 environments.
    - Added improved instructions for DG/UX, and corrected the default
      CD-ROM device node path in configure.sh.
    - The configure.sh script now will set up the XMcd*cddbMailCmd
      parameter as well, based on the OS variant.
    - The configure.sh now prompts the user before creating any
      X library symbolic links from non-standard locations to /usr/lib
      on SVR4 systems.

Misc changes:
    - Added an xmcd Options sub-window which allows run-time toggle
      of many of the feature options in the device.cfg file.  The
      Options window also includes a Channel Routing selector, a
      Volume Control Taper selector and a stereo Balance slider
      control (these can be used on CD-ROM drives that has the
      appropriate capabilities).
    - Added a Track Warp feature in the xmcd Keypad subwindow.  This
      allows fast searches to any part of a track using a slider.
      In conjunction with the keypad, this allows very easy access
      to any arbitrary CD location.  A similar feature is added to
      cda, where the "cda play" command now accepts an optional
      mm:ss offset argument if a track number is also specified.
    - Added a new Repeat Count Indicator in the xmcd main window
      display area.  This shows the number of iteration completed
      when playing audio with the Repeat mode enabled.  Likewise,
      a Repeat Count field is added to the "cda status" output.
    - Added support for the following cda commands: "balance"
      to set the stereo channel balance, and "route" to set the
      channel routing.
    - The Disc ID indicator in the xmcd CDDB/Program window now
      displays the CD category as well as the disc ID number.
      Likewise, the "cda toc" command now displays the category
      under the "Disc ID" heading as well.
    - The xmcd database Link feature CD list now displays the
      average track offset difference between the current CD and
      each potential database match.  Those entries that are
      within 10 seconds are now listed with bold font.  This
      enhancement is based on code contributed by Andreas Zins
      ([email-masked]).
    - Fixed a bug which causes xmcd to generate an X protocol error
      if the XMcd*cddbMailCmd resource is improperly set and the
      Send button is used.
    - The XMcd*cddbMailCmd resource now uses %S, %A and %F to denote
      the mail subject, mail address and CD database file path,
      respectively.  This makes it easier to configure xmcd to work
      with different mailers.
    - Fixed a bug where the track list display in the CDDB subwindow
      was being duplicated when a disc which is not in the database
      is inserted and ejected.
    - Fixed a typo in the xmcd.d/cfgtbl/Pioneer file which caused
      Pioneer not to appear in the xmcd configure.sh menu.
    - Increased the string buffer used in common_parminit() in
      xmcd.d/cdfunc.c so that longer CD database directory paths
      can be accommodated.
    - The "caddyLock" parameter is now in device.cfg instead of
      common.cfg.  Thus, it is now configurable on a per-device
      basis.
    - Added the balanceControlSupport, channelRouteSupport and
      channelRoute parameters to device.cfg.  Enhanced the configure.sh
      script to set up these parameters based on CD-ROM drive brand
      and model.
    - Fixed libdi.d/configure.sh to not put a backslash in the
      app-defaults/XMcd file (it was writing "XMcd\*libdir:", but
      it should be "XMcd*libdir:").
    - Added support for editres(1) in xmcd.  The code is enabled if
      compiled with -DEDITRES in the xmcd.d directory under X11R5 or
      later.  This feature is contributed by Andreas Zins
      ([email-masked]).
    - The "cda status cont" command now supports a sub-argument
      "secs" to allow the user to specify the display update time
      interval in seconds.  The default is now 1 second.
    - The "cda extinfo" command now always displays the disc extended
      info, then followed by the track extended info of the currently
      playing track, if any.  If "cda extinfo track#" is specified,
      then the specified track extended info is displayed instead.
    - The xmcd/cda -debug option was ineffective if the user has a
      $HOME/.xmcdcfg/common.cfg file with the debugMode parameter
      set to False.  This is now fixed.
    - Added "blues" and "country" to the default CD categories list.
    - If using the GNU X compiler (gcc), it is no longer required
      to specify the -fwritable-strings option.
    - Other enhancements and cleanups.

-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                vorsprung durch technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    [email-masked]
 //////  ...!{decwrl,synopsys,tandem,tsoft,ultra}!sgiblab!bazooka!ti
///      ...!uunet!bazooka!ti

--
Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: [email-masked]
Be sure to include Keywords: and a short description of your software.