Programming Sound Cards

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Audio Compact Disc Controller version 1.20 A resident audio CD player for dos Copyright (c) 1993-94, Anders Roar Nielsen ---=== Shareware ===--- * Do you from time to time play audio CD's with your CD-ROM? * * * * Yes? But your CD can only play from the start to the end? * * * * Yes? And you would really like to be in full control? * * * * Yes? Like repeat or random play, or selected tracks only? * * * * Yes? And of course all of it while running another program? * * * * Yes? Then the Audio Compact Disc Controller is a must for you! * * * * * * ╔═════════════════════════ ACDC ═════════════════════════╗ * * ║ ║ * * ║ Featuring full background control, you can play your ║ * * ║ favorite tracks while using almost any other program ║ * * ║ ║ * * ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ * * * * * * Features include: * * * * Start, stop, pause, resume, skip, accelerating scan. * * Random play, repeat one or all tracks, A-B repeat, intro scan. * * Informative status display and six different time displays. * * Intelligent location scrollbar and program listing. * * Stereo volume control with instant mute. * * Open/close and lock/unlock door. * * Supports multiple CD-ROM drives. * * Everything easily controlled by keyboard or mouse. * * Option for time display on top of textmode applications. * * * * Pop-up utility, icon and pif for Microsoft Windows included. * * * * Registered version fully programmable. * Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 1 CONTENTS Contents.......................................1 Disclaimer.....................................2 Agreement......................................2 Shareware......................................3 Introduction...................................3 Warning........................................4 Hard- and software requirements................4 Files..........................................5 Installation...................................5 Start up.......................................5 Using the program..............................6 Functions......................................6 Using the program with Microsoft Windows......11 Command line options..........................12 Troubleshooting...............................13 Registration..................................14 Upgrading.....................................16 Getting the latest version of the program.....17 Contacting the author.........................17 Credits.......................................17 Future plans..................................18 Revision history..............................18 Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 2 DISCLAIMER Anders Roar Nielsen is the author of Audio Compact Disc Controller. Users of Audio Compact Disc Controller must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "Audio Compact Disc Controller is supplied as is. The author dis- claims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without li- mitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of or inability to use Audio Compact Disc Controller, even if the author has been advised of the possibility of such damages." AGREEMENT Audio Compact Disc Controller is a shareware program and is provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. The program is a stand- alone program without any connection to specific CD-ROM drives or any other hard- or software. The unregistered shareware version of Audio Compact Disc Controller may be distributed freely by distributors of shareware / user sup- ported software, file distribution nets, bulletin boards etc., via modems, disks, CD-ROM disks etc., but only if all files are included completely and unmodified, preferably in one single archive file. The Audio Compact Disc Controller program MUST NOT be bundled with any piece of hardware without a written permission from the author. You are encouraged to pass a copy of the unregistered version of Audio Compact Disc Controller along to your friends and associates for evaluation, but please remember to include all files. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 3 SHAREWARE The essence of "try-before-you-buy" or "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for software developers to continue to develop new products. If you find the Audio Compact Disc Controller useful, and find that you are using the program and con- tinue to use it after a trial period of 30 days, you must make a registration payment to Anders Roar Nielsen, the author of the pro- gram. You will then receive your copy of the full featured program, licensed for use on any one computer at any one time. You can read more about how to register later in this manual. INTRODUCTION For quite a long time I was looking around for a good audio CD play- er program for dos. The program that came with my CD-ROM was very disappointing, and I soon wanted something better. Well, I found a lot of CD players for Microsoft Windows, many of them good, some of them not so good, but I couldn't find a good dos program. The reason for this could be that it is easier to write a Windows CD player program, since you don't have to produce code for the CD- ROM yourself. Nice, but not really what I wanted. I wanted a dos program. Finally, I decided to write the program myself. I wanted the program to have almost the same features found on many hi-fi CD players, and pretty soon I got the idea about having the program to play my favo- rite tracks while running other programs. This of course meant that I would have to make it as a resident pro- gram, capable of monitoring and controlling the CD-ROM while running another program. I have seen several other programs claiming "background music". In their term, this normally means "leave the CD playing when you exit the program". Well, ACDC not only gives you background music, but also background control, letting you choose what to play, and not just leaving the CD to play from the start to the end. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 4 WARNING As mentioned earlier, ACDC is a resident (TSR) program. This means, that ACDC will be located in your computers memory, waiting for you to press a dedicated hotkey by which time the pro- gram will try to pop-up on top of whatever program you are using. Even though every effort has been made to make this a safe program to use, you might find that you cannot activate the program on top of certain programs. This might most likely be the case if the other program changes some of the interrupt vectors, thereby not allowing ACDC to monitor the important interrupt calls. *** This can cause a system crash if you are unlucky! *** An example could be dos' Edit. This program is written is such a clumsy way that your system is almost guaranteed to crash if you try to activate ACDC on top of Edit. I have however found no problems when popping up on top of well written major applications like Word- Perfect 5.1, Borland Pascal, AutoCad R12's textmode screen, and many many more, including Microsoft Windows when used as described later. But you are advised never to have a large amount of unsaved work when you try to activate ACDC. HARD- AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Hardware: A IBM personal computer, or true compatible. The BIOS must support the keyboard intercept interrupt, int 15h, ah=4Fh. This is used when checking for the programs hotkey. The pc must be equipped with a color VGA and at least one CD-ROM capable of playing audio CD's. A mouse is a good idea, although not required. Software: Dos 3.10 or later. Whatever device driver that your CD-ROM drive needs to operate. Microsoft CD-ROM extension, MSCDEX.EXE version 2.21 or later. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 5 FILES The complete package consists of 8 files: Filename: Size: Date: Time: Description: FILE_ID.DIZ 615 08-01-94 1.20 A short description file. ACDC.COM 23859 08-01-94 1.20 The main program. POP_ACDC.EXE 4288 08-01-94 1.20 A pop-up utility meant to be used with Microsoft Windows 3.1. ACDC.PIF 545 08-01-94 1.20 Program-Information-File for Microsoft Windows 3.1. ACDC.ICO 766 08-01-94 1.20 Icon for Microsoft Windows. ACDC.DOC 41508 08-01-94 1.20 This document. ORDER.FRM 2867 08-01-94 1.20 Order form to print out if you want to register the program. UPGRADE.FRM 2634 08-01-94 1.20 Upgrade form to print out if you want to upgrade your previously registered copy of the program. INSTALLATION To install the program on your harddisk, all you have to do is copy the files to the directory where you want the program located. START UP You start up by executing ACDC.COM from dos' command line. The program will carry out a few checks, and if everything is ok, the program will terminate with a "Resident part installed" message. There are several command line options that you can use. To get a quick overview, enter ACDC /H or ACDC /?. This will show the command line options instead of installing the program. The options are de- scribed in details in the "COMMAND LINE OPTIONS" section later. If the program doesn't install or work properly, you are advised to read the "TROUBLESHOOTING" section later in this manual. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 6 USING THE PROGRAM When you have installed the program, you must press its special hot- key to activate the program. The default hotkey is CTRL+ALT+A; Press CTRL and ALT and hold them down while you press A. When you press the hotkey, the program checks different things to determine if it is safe to activate. These checks include dos, key- board and harddisk activity, and the current videomode. The program can only be activated if your pc is in video mode 3, that is stan- dard 80 x 25 character color mode. If everything looks ok, the program pops up, ready for you to use. If unable to pop up, the program will continue to try for 3 seconds after you pressed the hotkey. If the program is unable to pop up within those 3 seconds, the pop up request is cancelled, and you must press the hotkey to try again. The main part of the ACDC display looks like a typical hi-fi CD player, with buttons to press, and a time display to the right. The program also features a status display, showing the current state of your CD-ROM. The location scrollbar shows the position within the current track, and the program bar shows the track numbers on the compact disc. All the button have their function written in green capital letters. The buttons can be pressed by using a mouse or by pressing a key on your keyboard. If you are using a mouse, you simply click a mouse button (left or right) when then mouse cursor is on the CD-button you want to press. If you are using your keyboard, the key to press is either shown in dark red below the CD-button, like F1 below the play/pause button, or it is shown in yellow as one of the letters in the function text, like R in RAND. Note that the program doesn't check or change the palette or font when activated. If your foreground program has changed the palette or font, the CD player might look funny. Furthermore, the program doesn't check or change if the VGA card has been set up to show high intensity background colors instead of blinking characters. FUNCTIONS POWER : ( Keyboard: Escape ) Quit the program and return you to whatever you were doing when you activated the program. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 7 PLAY/PAUSE/RESUME : ( Keyboard: F1 ) Starts playing. The function of the play button will toggle be- tween play, pause and resume, depending on the status of your CD-ROM. STOP : ( Keyboard : F2 ) Stop playing. Go back to the beginning of the first track. SKIP reverse : ( Keyboard: F3, "-" or down arrow ) Go to beginning of current track, or, if within first second of the current track, go back to previous track. SKIP forward : ( Keyboard: F4, "+" or up arrow ) Go to beginning of next track. SCAN reverse : ( Keyboard: Shift-F3 or left arrow ) Accelerating reverse scan. If you hold down the SCAN button, the scan will accelerate, this however works best when activated with mouse since the keyboard repeat will interrupt the scan. SCAN forward : ( Keyboard: Shift-F4 or right arrow ) Accelerating forward scan. Works like SCAN reverse. Reverse and forward scan can also be activated by clicking a mouse button when the mouse cursor is at one of the two green arrows to the left and right of the location scrollbar. Left volume down / up. ( Keyboard : F5 / F6 ) Right volume down / up. ( Keyboard : F7 / F8 ) Both volumes down / up. ( Keyboard : F9 / F10 ) Note: Not all CD-ROM drives support volume control, and many drives support it with fewer steps than ACDC use. The program passes one byte to the device driver for left and right volume, but how well the volume control is done, depends on the CD-ROM and the device driver. The volume is changed in steps of 16, but can be stepping 1 if the program is installed with /V switch. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 8 Numeric keypad : ( Keyboard : 0 - 9 ) You can enter a track number using the numeric keypad to the left. When you do so, the number will flash for approximately 4 seconds in the time display. If you within that period press play or skip, you will jump directly to the track you entered. SCAN : ( Keyboard : S ) Play a intro scan of the tracks on the disc. Normally this means play 10 seconds of each track when you press Play. However, if you have entered a number and the number is flashing in the time display as described above, the intro scan will play that number of seconds of each track. In this way it is possible to play a intro scan of 1 - 99 seconds of each track. A-B : ( Keyboard : B ) Repeat playing between two locations. First time you press A-B, the program will memorize the current location, and the A-B but- ton will start to flash. Second time you press A-B, the program will memorize the current location once again, and from there on the playing will be repeated between the two locations until you press A-B again. ONE : ( Keyboard : N ) Repeat current track when playing. ALL : ( Keyboard : A ) Repeat all tracks when playing. RAND : ( Keyboard : R ) Play tracks in random order. When the program is playing random track, you can force a new random selection be pressing Return (Enter). This function cannot be activated with the mouse. Note on Scan, A-B, One, All and Rand: The five functions act as "radio"-buttons: Only one at a time can be activated. You can freely switch from one repeat-state to another without interrupting the music. Your selection will remain in effect after you quit the program, thus enabling for example continuous background random playing. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 9 OPEN / CLOS : ( Keyboard : O ) Open (eject) or close the CD-ROM drives door. Toggles between open and close, depending on the actual state of your CD's door. Note that many CD-ROM drives don't support eject, and even more CD-ROM drives don't support the close command. Note also, that your CD-ROM probably won't open if it is playing. You must then press STOP (F2) first, before you can open the door. LOCK / UNLK : ( Keyboard : L ) Lock or unlock the CD-ROM. Toggles between lock and unlock, depending on the actual state of your CD-ROM. Note: Many CD-ROM drives don't support lock / unlock commands. MUTE : ( Keyboard : M ) Instantly muting the output. A second press, or a press on one of the volume buttons, will restore the volume settings. Note: Depends of the capability to handle volume control as described earlier. PROG : ( Keyboard : P ) Programming. This feature is only available in the registered version of the program. You can program a sequence of up to 99 tracks, and still use all the other goodies as skip, scan, re- peats, random play etc, and ACDC will of course play your track selection in the background of other programs. You can read more about how to register later in this manual. TIME : ( Keyboard : T ) Changes the time display. The are 6 different time display for- mats. Each time you press TIME you will go to the next in this sequence: 0: Current track + elapsed track time. 1: Current track + remaining track time. 2: Current track + elapsed total disc (or program) time. 3: Current track + remaining total disc (or program) time. 4: Current track + actual time in HH:MM. 5: Actual time in HH:MM:SS (taken from your pc's system clock). Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 10 Location scroll bar and Program listing: If you are using a mouse, you can click directly on the location bar to go to a location within the current track, or you can click and hold down the mouse button and drag the location poin- ter. You can also jump to a track directly if you click when the mouse cursor is on a track number in the program listing. At the bottom of the screen you will find three more buttons: RESET : ( Keyboard : Z ) Send a reset command to the CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM : ( Keyboard : C ) If you have more then one CD-ROM drive, pressing the CD-ROM button will take you to the next CD-ROM. The drive letter, for example "D:" will be shown to the right of the CD-ROM button together with the total playing time of the disc inserted in the CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM change works by sending commands to the new device driver, not by subunits. DISPLAY : ( Keyboard : D ) When the program is not popped up, you can have the time display shown in one corner of your screen while running another pro- gram. By pressing the Display button you select between No Dis- play, Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left and Bottom Right. When you exit ACDC the selected will take effect, and you can monitor the playing while using other programs. Note however, that the time display will only be shown when you are working in standard video mode 3 ( 80 x 25 color text mode). Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 11 USING THE PROGRAM WITH MICROSOFT WINDOWS The program can easily be used together with Microsoft Windows, even though the program is a dos TSR program. The best way to make use of ACDC is to have it installed resident in memory before you start up Windows. First time you want to use the program together with Windows, you should spend a minute setting it all up. Here are the few steps you should take: In the following, I assume that you have ACDC installed in a direc- tory C:\ACDC on your harddisk, and I assume that you want the ACDC icon to appear in the Accessories group in Windows. If this is not the case, you should of course use your own directory and group name. First, before you enter Windows, install ACDC by executing ACDC.COM, then start up Windows. When you are in Windows, open up the Accessories group. From the Program Managers file menu, you then choose the menu item New... and click "Ok" to confirm you want to add a program item. As Description you then insert "Acdc" and as Command line you insert C:\ACDC\ACDC.PIF You then click "Change Icon" and click "Ok" to the first message about no icons in the file. In the following File Name box you then enter C:\ACDC\ACDC.ICO Finally, you click ok's to take you back to where you started out from, and the ACDC icon should now appear in the Accessories group. What now happens when you double-click the ACDC icon is, that the pif-file ACDC.PIF executes the POP_ACDC.EXE program. This is a small dos application that sends a pop-up request to the resident part of ACDC.COM. If you did install ACDC before you started Windows, the program will pop-up, ready for you to use. When you exit ACDC you will automatically be returned to Windows. If you have chosen for example random play, this will continue to work behind Windows. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 12 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS The following command line options can be used when executing ACDC: ( You can use "-" instead of "/", for example "ACDC -L" ) /L Install in low memory. Normally, the program will install the resident part in upper memory if upper memory is available. Specifying /L will force the program to install the resident part in low (conventional) memory. /K:x Use x (x = A-Z) as hotkey. The program will be activated when you press Ctrl+Alt+x. Default is Ctrl+Alt+A. /C:x Start up using CD-ROM drive x. x is a CD-ROM drive letter, for example /C:E if you want the program to start up using drive E: Default is first CD-ROM drive found. /D:x Start up displaying the time display at position x. x can be 0 for no display (default), 1 for top left corner, 2 for top right, 3 for bottom left and 4 for bottom right corner. The time will only be displayed when you are in 80 x 25 cha- racter color text mode (Video mode 3). /T:x Start up using time format x. x can be 0 for track + elapsed track time (default), 2 for track + remaining track time, 3 for track and elapsed disc time, 4 for track and remaining disc time, 5 for track + clock (HH:MM), 6 for complete clock (HH:MM:SS). /B Force RedBook addressing mode. When sending a play or seek command it is normally possible to use two different kinds of addressing modes, RedBook or HSG. As default ACDC will use HSG mode, but you can force RedBook mode with /B. /V Use volume control step 1. As default the volume controls will change the left and right volumes in steps of 16, giving 17 possible settings: 0,16,32,48,64,80,96,112,128,144,160, 176,192,208,224,240 and 255. If you specify /V then volumes will be change in steps of 1 instead, from 0 to 255. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 13 /N No checks before installing. Normally the program will check dos and mscdex version, and search for CD-ROM drives. If you specify /N the program will bypass these checks. In this way you can install the program on a pc without a CD-ROM if you for some reason should want to do so. /P The program will try to pop-up as soon as it is installed. /? /H Display a short summary of the command line options. The re- sident part of the program will not be installed. /R /U Specifying /R or /U will remove (uninstall) the program. TROUBLESHOOTING If you cannot get the program to run satisfying, the following are some things you could try to solve the problem. First of course make sure that you have installed whatever device driver your CD-ROM use, and make sure you have mscdex version 2.21 or later installed. Also you should try to determine that whatever problem you have, has nothing to do with other programs you might have installed. Try and setup your pc as "clean" as possible, without other device drivers and TSRs installed, and see if you still have the same pro- blem when executing ACDC. You might find that you have to install your TSRs in a specific order to get them all to work correctly. Finally, try and play around with the possible command line options. You may find, that you must use /N or /B to get the program to work correctly. You could also try and contact your CD-ROM dealer, to see if there is an updated device driver available for your CD-ROM. If you are still unable to get the program to work satisfying, I am afraid you are out of luck, but then I would appreciate a message from you describing exactly what problem you have. Please include as much information as possible; pc-type, CD-ROM type/model, dos and mscdex-version, other programs installed etc. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 14 REGISTRATION The Audio Compact Disc Controller is a Shareware program. This means, that if you find that you can use the program, and find that you continue to use the program after a 30 days trial period, you must pay a registration fee to Anders Roar Nielsen, the author of Audio Compact Disc Controller. When you register the program you will receive a 3,5" 720 kb disk with you personal copy of the full-featured registered program. The registered version includes complete programming facility, and doesn't show the registration reminder when you exit the program. You can program a sequence of up to 99 tracks, and let ACDC play your track selection in the background of most other applications. When you have programmed ACDC, you still have full access to all the other functions like skip, scan, random play etc. A registration also entitles you to update to future versions at large discounts. A normal registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. Discounts are available for quantity and corporate purchases and site licenses: Quantity Site Purchases: License: 1 - 10 copies: No discount No discount 11 - 20 copies: 10% discount 15% discount 21 - 30 copies: 15% discount 20% discount 31 - 50 copies: 20% discount 25% discount 51 -100 copies: 25% discount 30% discount 100 copies plus: 30% discount 35% discount Multiple copy purchases are simply bulk purchases and include that many copies of Audio Compact Disc Controller on disks. When site licensing, the site performs the diskette duplication from a single master disk. Note: Discounts apply only to separate orders, they are not cumula- tive. Discounts apply only to the normal registration fee. There are no discounts for foreign cheque fee and p&p. To register, you should print out the file ORDER.FRM, fill it out, and send the form together with your payment to the address given on the order form. Please follow the guidelines on the order form carefully. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 15 The registration fees depend on where you live: If you live outside Denmark: You must include the registration fee on a cheque. The cheque MUST be a cheque issued by your bank. I DO NOT accept a personal cheque drawn on your own account. Only a bank cheque. You are free to choose between paying in German Marks (DEM) or in Danish Kroner (DKK). If you pay in German Marks (DEM), fees are: Registration fee..: DEM 38 (discounts available, see above) Foreign cheque fee: DEM 15 (per cheque, no discounts) Postage & packing.: DEM 10 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one copy is 38+15+10 = DEM 63. If you pay in Danish Kroner (DKK), fees are: Registration fee..: DKK 150 (discounts available, see above) Foreign cheque fee: DKK 60 (per cheque, no discounts) Postage & packing.: DKK 39 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one copy is 150+60+39 = DKK 249. Due to the danish bank laws, I an unable to accept credit cards or other kind of payments. Only a cheque issued by/drawn directly on your bank is accepted. If you live in Denmark: You can pay with a normal cheque, as long as it is drawn on a danish bank. Registration fee..: DKK 150 (discounts available, see above) Postage & packing.: DKK 29 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one copy is 150+29 = DKK 179 when you live in Denmark. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 16 UPGRADING If you are among the many happy, and registered, users of ACDC, you can upgrade your registered version very easily and cheap. When you upgrade, you will receive a new disk with your registered copy of the latest version of the Audio Compact Disc Controller. To upgrade, first print UPGRADE.FRM, fill it out, and send it together with your upgrade payment. Discount rates and rules are the same for upgrading as for registering, please refer to the previous section. As with the registration fee, the update fee depends on where you live: If you live outside Denmark: You must include the upgrade fee on a cheque. The cheque MUST be a cheque issued by your bank. I DO NOT accept a personal cheque drawn on your own account. Only a bank cheque. You are free to choose between paying in German Marks (DEM) or in Danish Kroner (DKK). If you pay in German Marks (DEM), fees are: Upgrade fee.......: DEM 5 (discounts available, see above) Foreign cheque fee: DEM 15 (per cheque, no discounts) Postage & packing.: DEM 10 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one upgrade is 5+15+10 = DEM 30. If you pay in Danish Kroner (DKK), fees are: Upgrade fee.......: DKK 20 (discounts available, see above) Foreign cheque fee: DKK 60 (per cheque, no discounts) Postage & packing.: DKK 39 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one upgrade is 20+60+39 = DKK 119. I am unable to accept credit cards or other kind of payments. Only a cheque issued by/drawn directly on your bank is accepted. If you live in Denmark: You can pay with a normal cheque, as long as it is drawn on a danish bank. Upgrade fee.......: DKK 20 (discounts available, see above) Postage & packing.: DKK 29 (per disk, no discounts) Total fee for one upgrade is 20+29 = DKK 49 when you live in Denmark. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 17 GETTING THE LATEST VERSION OF THE PROGRAM The latest shareware version of the Audio Compact Disc Controller is always available for download or file request (magic file request name ACDC) from FidoNet 2:234/87 and 2:234/166. 2:234/87 is NightCall BBS line 1, Svendborg, Denmark. Phone (+45)-62202074, 0700-0230, GMT. USRobotics HST / V32b / V42b, 300-14400 bps. 2:234/166 is NightCall BBS line 2. Phone (+45)-62201450, 0700-0200, GMT. ZyXEL V32b / V42b, 300-19200 bps. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR Your comments, suggestions, etc. are always welcome. If possible, please use FidoNet netmail to 2:234/87.8, thank you. You can crash netmail to me at my sysop's BBS, see above. CREDITS Credits to: Ralf Brown. The Audio Compact Disc Controller uses his Alternate Multiplex Interrupt Specification, (AMIS). And I apologize for writing "Braun" in the documentation to version 1.00 and 1.10. Don't really know where I got that silly idea from. "Brown" it is, sorry Ralf. John Mellencamp. For the best CD's for testing and listening. Audio Compact Disc Controller v1.20 Page 18 FUTURE PLANS I've had several requests to include a CD-database function in ACDC, so the program can display artist, songtitles etc. when playing. Well, this is not so hard to implement. The reason why I haven't done it, is that I chose to keep the program relative small. As it is now, the programs resident part takes up roughly 20 kb of memory, and I don't think that a too big tsr program is attractive, since you also must have device drivers, mscdex, etc. installed. But if I can keep memory usage down, I might implement it, or make a special version featuring the database. I have also noticed an increasing interest among programmers for sourcecode to play audio CD's. I am therefore considering releasing code similar to the routines used in ACDC. Although ACDC is written in 100% assembler to keep the program size down, the code might come as a unit for Borland Pascal, or as an OBJ file. I wont promise an exact release date, but properly sometime during february 1994, if I am not to busy with my other programming projects and ideas. Anyway, keep your suggestions coming, and stay tuned! REVISION HISTORY 1.20 Released 8. january 1994: Default addressing mode changed, eliminating /S option. /P direct pop-up option added. Volume control changed to step 16, and /V option added. "-" can now be used as command line switch instead of "/". Option for retriggering random track selection added. Faster pop-up on many systems. The fix from version 1.10 has been improved. Screen layout and color usage changed a bit. Several other small internal fixes. 1.10 Released 2. november 1993: Contains a fix to improve performance on a certain Sony CD-ROM that start music playing at the end of one track when actually told to start playing from beginning of the following track. Furthermore, the program now is less cpu demanding when not popped up and music isn't playing. 1.00 Released 15. october 1993: First official release.