README
1 _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
2
3 This file announces the release of wavplay 1.4.
4
5 Warren W. Gay VE3WWG
6 ve3wwg@home.com
7 http://members.home.net/ve3wwg
8
9 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
10 Version 2, June 1991
11
12 (See file COPYING)
13
14 -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
15
16
17wavplay-1.4 completely replaces wavplay-1.3. This release consists
18mostly of improvements provided by Jonathan Woithe. There were some
19additional small fixes applied to bring the software up to date with
20current distributions. This should make it easier for folks to compile
21it.
22
23See also the BUGS file.
24
25------------------------------------------------------------------------
26WHAT'S NOT INCLUDED :
27------------------------------------------------------------------------
28
29Some of you have asked about compressed formats. This project still
30lacks support for it unfortunately. I have been busy holding down a job
31and writing Linux books. I had started GnuWave as a replacement for
32wavplay, but a general lack of time has prevented me from getting very
33far with it. I don't know what the future holds on this.
34
35------------------------------------------------------------------------
36CHANGES FOR WAVPLAY 1.4 (SINCE WAVEPLAY 1.3) :
37------------------------------------------------------------------------
38
39- Jonathan Woithe applied a fix to FilesDlgOKCB() so it ignored empty
40XmStrings passed from the file selector dialog when a directory was
41selected.
42
43- Jonathan Woithe: fixed some actions immediately after starting the
44program (eg: setting 8/16 bit sample size) would not clear all of the
45help strings displayed in the File/type/date/size fields. This has been
46fixed.
47
48- Jonathan Woithe: During record, the size, duration and number of
49samples is updated as the recording progresses.
50
51- Jonathan Woithe: a time display was added. This allows a user to start
52playback from any point in the file. While playing, this display also
53tracks the current position within the file. The display is calibrated
54in 25 fps SMPTE format.
55
56- Jonathan Woithe (24Feb1999): the block size request to the sound
57driver now follows the setting of sampling rate, sample size etc since
58doing it before these are set results in undefined behaviour.
59
60- Warren Gay: fixed the annoying problem with union semun being
61undefined. At one time it was defined by include <sys/sem.h>, but
62according to recent semctl(2) man page "according to X/OPEN we have to
63define it ourselves". This is now auto-detected at compile time, and so
64should still compile on old and new kernels.
65
66- Warren Gay: A new -d option was added to the wavplay/wavrec command,
67to allow the user to override the device pathname on the command line.
68This was suggested by Jonathan Woithe and added by me (Jonathan, your
69patches talked about it but was missing this code as far as I can tell.)
70Jonathan indicated that this is useful if you have multiple sound cards
71installed.
72
73------------------------------------------------------------------------
74CHANGES FOR WAVPLAY 1.3 (SINCE WAVPLAY 1.0) :
75------------------------------------------------------------------------
76
77See file NEW for a more complete description. This release is primarily
78a bug fix release, but does include a few small enhancements. The
79primary enhancement to this release is the real time scheduling feature,
80which if enabled, can greatly improve the reliability of wav file
81playing or recording (Thanks to Dirk Pfau pfau@dkrz.de for this
82suggestion).
83
84------------------------------------------------------------------------
85WAVPLAY/WAVREC REQUIREMENTS :
86------------------------------------------------------------------------
87
88 - Probably any kernel released as 1.2.13 or later is a safe bet,
89 but real time support requires 2.x.x or later.
90 - Requires appropriate and working sound drivers installed
91
92 TESTED ON:
93
94 - egcs-2.91.66
95 - Red Hat 6.0
96 - Kernel release 2.2.10
97
98------------------------------------------------------------------------
99XLTWAVPLAY *ADDITIONAL* REQUIREMENTS :
100------------------------------------------------------------------------
101
102 - Mouse
103 - Working X Server
104 - X based libraries (X, Xt etc.)
105 - libXmu.so (unless you uncomment NO_EDITRES option in Makefile)
106 - libXm.so (LessTif/or MOTIF)
107
108------------------------------------------------------------------------
109HISTORY :
110------------------------------------------------------------------------
111
1121.4 A release mostly based upon Jonathan Woithe's fixes and
113 enhancements. I added the -d option and fixed the semun compile
114 problem. Minor adjustments to the Makefile also were made.
115
1161.3 Bug fix release, includes 1.0 + 2 patches, and other small
117 bug fixes. Added sched_setscheduler() call.
118
1191.0 The current release, which includes:
120
121 wavplay Improved
122 recplay Improved
123 xltwavplay MOTIF/LessTif client (new)
124
1250.22 A modification release by Per Harald Myrvang (perm@bigfoot.com)
126
127 In this release, patched a few fixes to the problematic WAV
128 header code, as well as added options -Q, -i and -D for quiet
129 mode, information display only mode, and debug modes.
130
1310.21w1 A modification release by myself of Andre Fuechsel's
132 (af1@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de) work.
133
134 For the most part, this release did not change the WAV aspects
135 of the program, but merely added semaphore locking facilities
136 and made the program more shell friendly. The executable name
137 was changed from the original 'play' to 'wavplay'.
138
139 Andre's Xplay was dropped from this release, since it was
140 available in his original work.
141
1420.21 Andre Fuechsel (af1@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de)
143
144 Apparently a bug fix release for Xplay. This appears to be the
145 first public release.
146
1470.2 Andre Fuechsel (af1@irz.inf.tu-dresden.de)
148
149 According to Andre's README, it was "(not announced)". Andre
150 also notes that:
151
152 "Some code comes from the recplay.c written by Liam Corner,
153 posted in the 'Audio Utilities for Linux 2.0' - Package."
154
155------------------------------------------------------------------------
156WAVPLAY USAGE :
157------------------------------------------------------------------------
158
159Usage: wavplay [options] [files...]
160
161Options:
162 -h This info (or use --help)
163 -q Quiet mode (no messages)
164 -s rate Sampling rate
165 -S Stereo (undoes -M)
166 -M Mono (undoes -S)
167 -b bits Set number of bits (8/16)
168 -k key Set IPC Key for lock
169 -R Remove and recreate semaphore locks.
170 -l Lock for play.
171 -u Unlock for play.
172 -L Lock for record.
173 -U Unlock for record.
174 -i Display info about wav file(s) only
175
176 -V Display version and Copyright info (or use --version)
177
178WAV parameters are normally taken from the input file(s),
179but command line options can override them if required.
180
181------------------------------------------------------------------------
182WAVREC USAGE :
183------------------------------------------------------------------------
184
185Usage: wavrec [options] output_file
186
187Options:
188 -h This info (or use --help)
189 -q Quiet mode (no messages)
190 -s rate Sampling rate
191 -S Stereo (undoes -M)
192 -M Mono (undoes -S)
193 -t secs Set time limit
194 -b bits Set number of bits (8/16)
195 -k key Set IPC Key for lock
196 -R Remove and recreate semaphore locks.
197 -l Lock for play.
198 -u Unlock for play.
199 -L Lock for record.
200 -U Unlock for record.
201
202 -V Display version and Copyright info (or use --version)
203
204------------------------------------------------------------------------
205XLTWAVPLAY USAGE :
206------------------------------------------------------------------------
207
208 xltwavplay &
209
210
211------------------------------------------------------------------------
212INSTALLATION :
213------------------------------------------------------------------------
214
215See the included file INSTALL for details about installation.
216
217End of README.
218