
 W_O_W    ۲           2003         -p-l-a-y-e-r-
                          
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                              ۲۲         DOS
    ۲      ۲  ۲   ۲      ޲۲۲ ۲  -M-I-D-I-
                           
          Copyright (C) HiTech Laboratories, Denis Andrianov

                     
                   <<  D O C U M E N T A T I O N  >>
                     
               -- Best viewed in the 50 line text mode --


 1. Introduction                              Writing software documentation
  1.1  License                                is perhaps the most boring
  1.2  What is Midier?                        task that a programmer must
  1.3  Configuring for Best Sound             tackle!!!
  1.4  Running Midier

 2. Using Midier
  2.1  Command Line
  2.2  Interface

 3. What's New

 4. Closing Words



                                INTRODUCTION    
                            
1.1  License


  This software is licensed under the GNU license. Read COPYING.TXT for
  more details. However, if you modify the source code, please let me know...
  It's always interesting to analyze other people's ideas. See the last
  section if you would like to contact me.


1.2  What is Midier?


  Well, Midier is a DOS-based player of MID and RMI files. The thing that
  makes it different from many other DOS MIDI players is the fact that
  Midier supports all versions of the Sound Blaster card (at least in theory).
  After spending hours searching for various DOS MIDI software on the web, I
  found a bunch of quite impressive programs. However, most of them only
  supported GUS.

  Personally, I don't like the idea of MIDI files. What I really hate about
  them is that they sound differently on different hardware, unless you
  emulate the instruments, of course. Keep in mind that Midier does not do
  that! If you want a player which uses its own instruments for playback get
  something like Cubic Player. Anyway, enough of that.

  Midier handles random and ordered playlists that can be modified on the
  fly. Excellent command line support with wildcard compatibility and
  switches, that may override default settings stored in the configuration
  file, may help you integrate this software into a shell such as WinDos.
  Midier features a beautiful skinnable animated text-mode interface
  (ASCii-art), several playback modes and plenty of useful controls.


1.3  Configuring for Best Sound


  Midier can use an internal or an external synthesizer to produce sound.
  MPU-401 interface is well handled, so if your sound card supports it,
  please use it as it will enhance the sound quality dramatically. If you
  are not sure, you may want to experiment and try selecting the
  synthesizers one at a time. Configuring the sound output will involve
  editing MIDIER.BAT file and specifying appropriate command lines for the
  drivers loaded just before the TUI.EXE executable (SBMIDI and SBSIM).

  The contents of MIDIER.BAT is simply this.

     Ŀ
      @echo off                                                         
      sbmidi.exe                                                        
      sbsim.com                                                         
      tui.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5                                            
      sbsim.com /u                                                      
      sbmidi.exe /u                                                     
     

  The command line of SBMIDI.EXE driver is as follows.

     Ŀ
      Usage:                                                            
            SBMIDI [/X] | [/Y] | [/U] | [/?]                            
                                                                        
      where                                                             
            [/X]: /G - General MIDI.                                    
                  /E - Extended MIDI (default).                         
                  /B - Basic MIDI.                                      
                                                                        
            [/Y]: /1 - Sound Blaster Music synthesizer (default).       
                  /2 - External Music Synthesizer.                      
                  /3 - External Music Synthesizer (MPU401 Interface).   
                                                                        
            [/U]: Unload the driver.                                    
                                                                        
            [/?]: Display this help message.                            
     

  Important!!! If you have a very old SoundBlaster card and you don't get 
  any sound even with the most basic setup, try using the SB122OLD.EXE 
  driver instead of SBMIDI.EXE.

  ...And the command line for SBSIM.COM.

     Ŀ
      Usage:                                                            
        SBSIM [ options ] [ filename ]                                  
                                                                        
      where options = one or more of:                                   
        /H  -  display help message (this one!)                         
        /?  -  (same as /H)                                             
        /Q  -  quiet mode - don't print messages                        
        /U  -  unload SBSIM                                             
                                                                        
       and filename = name of config file to read                       
                      If not specified, filename                        
                      defaults to 'SBSIM.CFG'.                          
     

  A word of caution: if you run TUI.EXE directly without having loaded
                     the drivers, Midier will crash as soon as you attempt
                     to play a file. So please avoid doing that and always use
                     MIDIER.BAT to execute the player.


1.4  Running Midier


  Gee, that's a hard one. Try typing MIDIER at the DOS prompt or double
  clicking on the file in a shell such as WinDos. Note that you must be
  in the directory of Midier.



                                USING MIDIER    
                            
2.1  Command Line


  Syntax:  midier.bat [d:][path][file|@listfile] [/R|/O] [/L] [/GFX|/TXT]

  Options:
           /R or /O      random or ordered list play respectively
           /L            looped playback
           /GFX or /TXT  graphics or text mode while playing respectively

   The above options effectively override the ones in the configuration file
    MIDIER.CFG.

   A playlist file specification must be followed by '@'. Also the file
    should not contain wildcards.

   The file name field may contain wildcards. All of the files matching the
    pattern will be placed in the playlist window.

  Examples:

    midier c:\music\midi\*.mid /r   Will play all MID files in C:\MUSIC\MIDI
                                    in a random order.

    midier @midi.lst /o /gfx        Will attempt to play files contained in
                                    MIDI.LST in an orderly fashion with the
                                    graphical "flame" mode switched on.

    midier onefile.rmi              Will play a single file ONEFILE.RMI.


2.2  Interface


  The interface is fairly straight forward. The left window is your main
  file browsing tool. You can switch drives by pressing an appropriate
  drive letter. The rest is done with the cursor and the ENTER keys. The
  right window is the playlist window. To add a file to the playlist,
  simply select the file and press the right arrow key. To remove the
  file, press the left arrow key. Easy enough? Anyway, it's stupid to
  try and explain all of it here. Run the program and experiment! The F1
  key will display all of the key combinations available for use with
  their corresponding description.

  Now, there are currently three playing modes available. Note that they will
  ONLY be activated during playback. You will see the default text interface
  screen when no files are being played. The modes are:

    1. The Standard Text Mode -- This is the default interface, where you
                                 may select the files that you want to be
                                 played or construct a playlist. Neat and
                                 funny messages scroll at the top of the
                                 screen.

    2. The Scrolling Mode     -- Very similar to the previous mode, but
                                 instead of the messages you will see a
                                 scrollable text file. You can resize the
                                 main window frame so that a bigger
                                 portion of the file is visible. See the
                                 F1 screen and the CFG file for info on
                                 how to control this mode.

    3. The GFX "Flame" Mode   -- This is just a cool and very realistic
                                 animation of a flame. Looks nice. Try it
                                 and see.

  I will not go into any more detail. I encourage everyone to experiment
  on their own. Check out the MIDIER.CFG file. Apart from lots of
  interesting features that you may configure, this is the place
  where you may modify all of the colours that you see on the
  screen while the player is running. Also there are three predefined colour
  palette configurations that you may try.



                                 WHAT'S NEW     
                            
-
     Version 2.50
 --

  - Documentation ;)
  - File scroller mode
  - Graphics flame mode
  - <F9> sets standard text mode
  - <F10> sets the flame mode
  - <F11> sets the file scrolling mode
  - Introduced scrolling control keys. 
  - <ALT>+<UP> and <ALT>+<DOWN> resizes the file selector window
  - Skin support. Added many new "skin" commands to midier.cfg:
      * FrameCol
      * Frame2Col
      * FrameEdgeCol
      * FrameEdge2Col
      * FrameTextCol
      * MidierLogoCol
      * MessageCol
      * TextScrollCol
      * StatusCol
      * StatusPlayCol
      * FlagOnCol
      * FlagOffCol
      * TextPnlHiCol
      * TextPnlTextCol
      * ConfigPnlHiCol
      * ConfigPnlTextCol
      * HeadingCol
  - Colour attribute manipulation command to midier.cfg:
      * ColourXX R G B
  - Created three skins ready for use.
  - The following new commands have been added to midier.cfg:
      * FileWindowY
      * FileWindowHeight
      * ScrollFile
      * SaveScrollPos
      * ScrollByte
      * ScrollDir
      * ScrollSpeed
  - Updated the help window.
  - Configuration screen updated to reflect the new options
  - BUG FIX: it was possible to crash Midier if it was paused while playing
             a playlist.
  - Cleaned up the code
  - Source code released
  - And more that I don't remember...



                               CLOSING WORDS   
                            

  I'm sorry that this doco is so brief, but I really do hate writing
  them. If you have any unresolved problems or questions, you can always
  E-mail them to me and I will try to get to you as soon as possible.

  Please write to:               d_andrianov@mail15.com
  If that address fails, use:    d_andrianov@hotmail.com

  Note that I check the second one much less frequently!

  To download the latest version of this program or to take a look at
  other DOS projects, visit:
                                 http://www.hitechlabs.tk/

  HAVE FUN!!! And remember, donations are always welcomed...

