IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 Overview Those of you who have used a M*cintosh will know that it allows you to select a digitised sound to be played as the system's "bell". Hey if the M*c can do it the so can the Amiga!. IFFBeep is a simple program that replaces the screen flash code of DisplayBeep() with a program that will play any IFF 8SVX sound file when a call is made to this function. IFFBeep can also play different sounds when a disk is inserted/removed from a drive. IFFBeep can run from the CLI or workbench. If you run IFFBeep from the CLI it will automatically detach so there is no need to use RUNBACK. IFFBeep does require ARP library to be present in your LIBS: directory. A copy of ARP.library is supplied on the distribution disk and the installation program will install it if you do not already have it. Installation If running from the CLI you should set your default directory to the directory that contains the IFFBeep distribution files and then execute the INSTALL_IFFBEEP script: 1> EXECUTE INSTALL_IFFBEEP If running from the Workbench environment simply double click on the INSTALL icon. The install program will install IFFBeep on the current system disk. This install program will copy the IffBeep, BCP and Beep programs to the c: directory. It will install the ARP.Library in your LIBS: directory if it isn't already there. It will copy the following files to your DEVS: directory: IFFBeep.cfg SystemBeep DiskinSound DiskOutSound. These files are, respectively, the default configuration file, the default "beep" sound, the default "disk inserted" sound and the default "disk ejected" sound. Running IFFBeep Once you have installed IFFBeep you have a choice of Page 1 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 ways in which to run it. The most convenient way to run IFFBeep is to install it in your startup-sequence. In this case, you would use the CLI syntax as shown below. If you do not place IFFBeep in your startup-sequence then you can either start it from the CLI or from the Workbench. CLI Syntax The CLI syntax for IFFBeep is as follows: IFFBeep CONFIG REMOVE The CONFIG argument allows you to specify the name a configuration file created with BCP (see "The IFFBeep Control Panel" below). If this argument is omitted then the default configuration file (DEVS:IFFBeep.cfg) is used. If this file cannot be found then IFFBeep uses internal hard-coded defaults. If IFFBeep is already running then the configuration details will be updated using the data in the selected configuration file. The REMOVE option is only valid if IFFBeep is already running. It will send a message to the IFFBeep task which causes it to exit and return system operation to normal. Workbench Syntax To start IFFBeep from the Workbench simply double-click on it's icon. Through the Workbench Info command you can specify one tooltype for IFFBeep. This is CONFIG=. This argument functions in the same manner as the CLI CONFIG option. The IffBeep Control Panel IffBeep has an interactive control panel program, BCP. When run, BCP will get the current settings from IFFBeep and then bring up a small window that allows you to change these settings. There are two menus attached to this window. The Project menu allows you to load and save configuration files as well as iconise BCP and remove IFFBeep. When BCP is iconised you can open it up again by simply clicking the right mouse button after selecting the small "Amiga Tick" window. The Event menu allows you to select for which event (Beep, Disk insertion and Disk ejection) Page 2 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 settings are displayed. There is a slider that allows you to change the volume. When the volume button is clicked the sample will be played to demonstrate the new volume. If you click on the "gradient" beside the volume slider, then the sample will also be played. The "New Sample" gadget will bring up an ARP file requester that allows you to select a new sound file. It will open up with the directory of the last loaded sound file. If you erase this and press return, it will display the directory you were in when you ran BCP. The check box above the "New Sample" gadget is used to select whether or not the current event is activated. The two radio buttons and the integer gadget are used to control the "memory nice" features of IffBeep (see Memory below). If purge is enabled (top button) then the value in the integer gadget selects the number of seconds after the beep has been used that it is removed from memory. The bottom button deselects this feature. If you are loading your sample from a floppy disk that you want to take out of the drive, and you can afford the memory, then I suggest that you disable the purge feature and click on the gradient to load the sound in immediately. This will stop annoying volume requesters coming up later if the beep is called but not in memory. Using the new beep. Any programs which currently call DisplayBeep() will automatically use the new code. You can use the code in your own programs by calling DisplayBeep. If you send a Bell character (Ascii code 7) to the Console device then the beep will also be invoked. Another little program, called Beep is included. This lets you test your new beep. IFFBeep will must store the sound sample data in chip RAM. This means if you have a 10K sample then 10K of chip RAM will be used to store this sample. As an aid to memory conservation IFFBeep does not load the sample until it is first needed. This means that you can place IFFBeep in your startup-sequence without it ever loading the sample. Also, after a time without being called the sample will be released from memory. This means you may Page 3 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 get a volume requester the next time the beep is needed. Do not panic! This is not a virus wanting to infect your boot disk! Page 4 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 Conditions and Credits IffBeep Version 2.0 is © 1990 by Paul Wilkinson. All Rights Reserved. Anything this program does to your machine isn't my problem. Anything you think this program should do but doesn't isn't my problem (but send me any suggestions at the address below). Any money lost due to the performance or lack of performance of this program isn't my problem... (you get the idea). IffBeep is CharityWare. Under this system I suggest that if you like and use this software then you make a small donation to a local charity. I don't do this for money. Some other guys pay me to work on computers. I do this because it is fun! If you like, you can send me a picture-postcard of your town. IFFBeep may be freely redistributed as long as the following conditions are observed: 1) All Files are distributed as supplied in the original distribution (ie. "as you get it") 2) Only a "reasonable" fee is charged for such distribution. 3) IFFBeep may not be used on "disk magazines" without prior written consent from the author. Contact the Author with any comments/criticisms at: Paul Wilkinson 24 Armstrong Ave. Mt. Warrigal NSW 2528 Australia or via Fido NetMail to 3:712/518.5 Thanks to Peter Nicholson for the IFF sound routines. This program is dedicated to the memory of Transactor magazine. Page 5 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 History of Changes Version 0.4 First release to Andrew Zahra for Alpha Test Version 0.5 Many improvements. NewBeep does not require full path any more. Sound is only loaded when first needed. Sound is unloaded if not called for more than 5 minutes. Version 0.6 First version of BCP released. IffBeep now requires Arp.library to operate. Recoded IFF routines so that IffBeep no longer needs to be compiled +L under Manx. Version 0.7 IffBeep now detaches from CLI. Changed to compile under Aztec 5.0. Command line for sound file, volume and purge time added to IffBeep & NewBeep. Added workbench support. Version 1.00 Added remove option to IffBeep. Enabled Remove option in BCP. Also added Iconise facility to BCP. Changed bcp so that it also detaches from parent CLI. Changed IffBeep so that it performs the functions of the old newbeep program if an IffBeep task is already running. Changed command line arguments for IffBeep. Now uses GADS() parsing from ARP. Version 1.01 Fixed GURUs when sound file could not fit in memory Version 2.00 Major rewrite after Hard Disk crash (backups? What Backups?) Plans Perhaps a "talking moose" type of thing where a randomly selected sound is played at a random time. Perhaps an hourly chime. Perhaps a workbench clock? Page 6 IFFBeep 2.00 Amiga User's Manual IFFBeep 2.00 Overview................................... 1 Installation............................... 1 Running IFFBeep............................ 1 CLI Syntax.............................. 2 WorkBench Syntax........................ 2 The IffBeep Control Panel.................. 2 Using the new beep......................... 3 Memory..................................... 3 Conditions and Credits..................... 5 History of Changes......................... 6 Plans................................... 6 Page 7