YES YOU HAVE OPTED TO BE SMART!!!


Dependencies:
             You'll need libmagic, dlopen, C++ and a unix based OS.
	     Plugins require additional depencies.

       mp3 plugin:      Shouldn't require anything special
       vorbis plugin:   Requires libogg, libvorbis, pkg-config
       console plugin:  Shouldn't require anything special
       GTK2  plugin:    Requires libgtk2.x, pkg-config



Compiling:
       Edit top level Makefile to choose which plugins you wish to build
       and where you would like to install them. mp3stat is built with a
       non-configurable (after compile time) plugin search dir, so if
       you're building on top of a previous install of mp3stat you'll want
       to install in to the same directory to avoid copying over older plugins.

       Rebuild mp3stat and stock plugins: just run make all in top directory
       To install :   just run make install.

       It is not necessary to rebuild mp3stat if you just want to rebuild
       a plugin.  Simply enter the plugin's directory and make/make install/
       make clean whatever.

	   make install installs plugins into $INSTALLDIR/lib/mp3stat
	                installs headers into $INSTALLDIR/include/mp3stat
			installs mp3stat into $INSTALLDIR/bin/


Running:
      after running make install. simply execute "mp3stat"
      mp3stat by default will want to use gtk2 as it's default ui,
      but if you didn't build it with gtk2 at the time of compiling
      mp3stat, then it will default to the first UI plugin it reads.
      mp3stat

      The different UI plugins each have their own valid argumenst
      the base mp3stat program only has two. -u/-U/--ui and -l/-L/--list
      --list will list available UI plugins found by mp3stat.

      -u will allow you to override the default UI
      eg.  mp3stat -u console

      The order of arguments has some significance, since arguments are not
      removed from the list that have been used by the base program
      (-u and -l) This will be fixed in later versions.

      Until then you'll want to specify any mp3stat specific arguments first
      and any UI specific arguments after

      an eg of using console ui:
      mp3stat -u console -b /path/to/some/music/*.*

Problems questions:

      mp3stat will throw an error and not run when any library is found to not
      work in the plugin directory.

      mp3stat will not run when no ui plugins are found.


What the hell does it do?

The point of this program besides teaching me how to do gtk+ and other things
was to give a more visual way of looking at the differences caused by encoders
on the same audio file or between codecs. It only looks at the bitstream
differences of bitrates,  it in no way capable of showing which encoder is
better or which codec is better.  It's merely an informational tool for
someone interested in knowing where an encoder is putting larger bitrates and
smaller bitrates throughout the file.  How those change depending on quality
levels and how different encoders handle certain audio files.


What's the graph all about?

The graph is a linear representation of the mp3 bitrates from beginning (left)
to end (right)..  colors are shown next to their bitrates in the main output
screen for reference.  Each unit is based on an avg of a given number of
frames. The resolution of the graph is 500, so it takes the average bitrate of
total_frames / 500 every frames and assigns it a color to the closest bitrate.
That is why you can see in the chart for the breakdown of frames, say 2000 in
the 160 area yet none of that color on the graph. Depending on the
distribution of those frames, it can be outnumbered by surrounding
lower-bitrate frames.  One thing you may be able to guage by the graph is the
psychoacoustic engine of the encoders being compared.  You may find drastic
differences in streams created by oggenc and lame, etc. The colors of the
bitrates are chosen for best visibility in the graph.


Adding new filetypes

check README.interface


Acknowledgements

Special thanks to a very old version of mp3check for the mp3 parsing routines.
Although i dont know how recognizeable those are anymore. heh. also ogginfo
from the vorbis-tools package for providing more mature code than i was using.
Also the vorbis mailing list for helping out with the instant bitrate algorithm
for which i was too tired to be able to figure out.

Also another special thanks to Torbj�rn Wassberg for all the great help in
helping to fix mp3stat's memory allocation woes as well as other code cleanups.
Could not have finished this release without him.

And not to leave out Peter Harris who is responsible for the text mode ui and
the Visual C project file.


				   email ( safemode@comcast.net )

mp3stat has 2 subsystems on top of the base client; input and UI

The input subsystem consists of 2 levels of inherited classes, the base is the
statistic class.  This class contains the bulk of the data the UI uses. The
class is then inherited by a plugin object (input).

The UI subsystem is much the same way only most of the bulk of the UI subsystem
rests in the upper layer, instead of the lower one like the input subsystem.

The glue is the client: mp3stat.

The following is example code for a UI plugin. It contains the basics
you need in every UI plugin. usage() is optional, but highly recommended
An input plugin follows a similar interface. Simply observe input.h and the
vorbis plugin that is shipped with mp3stat, since it's easier to follow.

You can have additional methods in your ui class of course.  But it is not
recommended that you try to use methods external to your plugin other than
those used in the example below or any returned by ld'ing the plugins shipped
with mp3stat.

your_plugin.h

#include "plugit.h"
class your_ui_plugin : public gui
{
   public:
       your_ui_plugin() : gui(), type("your_moniker") {;}
       virtual ~your_ui_plugin() {;}
       inline virtual std::string getType() const { return(type); }
       virtual int start(std::vector<const char*>);
       virtual void usage() const;
   private:
       const std::string   type;
       statistic           Input;
};

your_plugin.cpp

#include "your_plugin.h"
using namespace std;
void your_ui_plugin::usage() const
{
    use();
    printf("UI specific help display \n");
}
int your_ui_plugin::start (vector<const char*> args)
{
   statistic tempInput;
   vector<const char*>::iterator i;
     for(i = args.begin();i != args.end(); i++){
        if(!strcmp(*i,"-h") || !strcmp(*i, "-H") || !strcmp(*i,"--help")){
	    usage();
	    return(0);
	}
	/* Other various arguments are checked for here */
     }
     /* you can rerun this argument loop so that your overriding arguments
        are handled first before others.  such as having -h along with some
	other arguments */

     /* by some method, a filename is requested to be scanned */
     tempInput = get_file_data("some filename");
     if(tempInput.getTframes() > 0){
        Input = tempInput;
        /* handle displaying data to user */
     }
}

extern "C" gui* createu() {
       return new your_ui_plugin;
}

extern "C" void destroyu(gui* tempUI) {
       delete tempUI;
}