CDplayer 1.0
by Mark Buckaway (mark@datasoft.com)

Introduction

This is the second release of CDplayer. The first release I wrote because I
did not run X and all cdplayers at the time required X. If you like the
command line, this program is for you. I updated the program because I got
bored late one Saturday night and thought a few concerned could be addressed.


What is it?

CDplayer is a silly little utility to play audio CD's in a CDROM
drive attached to Linux system. The program is command line oriented.
IT DOES NOT REQUIRE X-WINDOWS! Currently, it allows CD's:
- to play,
- to play starting from a track,
- to be stopped, 
- to be paused and resumed,
- and ejected. 

The program is run, the command processed, and the program exited.

The program is designed to be a quick and simple solution to getting
noise from your Linux supported CDROM drive.

In this release, a few concerns have been addressed:

- The program is compile time configurable. There should be no more posts on
colh asking why /dev/mcd is not found. The device that is opened is entered
by the program's Configure script.

- NEC CDROM drives are supported. Some NEC CDROM's require strange commands
to be sent to them to get audio CD's to play. I borrowed xcdplayer's nec_ioctl
function for this.

- An annoying bug has been fixed. The program should now correctly detect if
the CDROM drive has a mounted CDROM in it. This was really only a concern if
the mtab got trashed or more than one ISO9660 file system was mounted at the
same time.

- Added a manpage (for those who really can't figure it out :))

- The code was updated and cleaned up. The GNU Public License info has been
correctly attached.


Compiling and Installing.

Do:

- to configure and compile, type 'make'
- to install, type 'make install'
- to clean up, type 'make clean'

make automatically runs the Configure script which will ask a few questions on
how to setup CDplayer. Afterwards, the appropriate entries in config.h are
created.

make install does just that. It installs the program and manpage to the
selected directories.

make clean kills everything that cannot be remade.


Using CDplayer

First, type "cdplayer" and read the options shown. If you can't figure this
out, please read the manpage. If you need help, please ask.

Just a little warning, you should set the permissions on CDplayer such
that those with console access can use it. Not a big deal for single
user system.

Compatibility.

This program works in my system. I have a 386DX40, 16MB, Mitsumi (Blech...
single speed) CDROM, and Linux 1.1.9. I have heard of reports that various
SCSI CDROM's work. The "new" NEC CDROM code would grab the rest of them and
make them compatible.


Future

At one point, I had planned to make a curses interface to CDplayer. Now, I have
found out that someone has crafted WorkBone, a cdplayer with a curses
interface, I have given up on this idea. Rather than re-invent the
wheel, methinks I'll leave CDplayer as a command line utility. Perhaps,
I will add in the future, support for telling the user the current status
and track that is playing, and perhaps random track selection.

Perhaps in the future, I'll correct the bad english in the readme file
and manpage as well :)


Contacting the Author

You can contact me, Mark Buckaway, at:

Email: mark@datasoft.com (or mark@accesspt.north.net)
Voice: +1 416 756 4497
Smail: DataSoft Communications
       62 Rock Fernway
       Willowdale, ON
       M2J 4N5
       CANADA


Thanks

Thanks to all those who have tried CDplayer and let me know it works. Also,
thanks for Micheal Peek (peek@math.utk.edu) for letting me know the version 1.0
compiles on his system and the NEC stuff works for him. Without Michael's
feedback, I would most likely have not released this version...


Where to find CDplayer

CDplayer is uploaded to sunsite.unc.edu and tsx-11.mit.edu. Check
the index files on these sites as to the appropriate location on each
site.
