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6.2 KiB
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126 lines
6.2 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>A New CD-Player LG #26</title>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1>Tcd and Gtcd</H1>
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<h4>by <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
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</center>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
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<p>CD-players for Linux abound these days, with both curses-based console
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programs and X programs available in a variety of degrees of usefulness,
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complexity, and polish. There are even command-line players, though with the
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current CDROM drives (with their built-in controls) a player is no longer
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strictly necessary. The main advantage of using a dedicated CD-player program
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is the possibility of using a database containing titles and track names,
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as well as play-lists, auto-repeating and other user conveniences.
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<p>Xmcd is one of the more popular X-windows players; it's a freely
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available program but does require the proprietary Motif libs for compilation
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from source, though statically-linked binaries are available. One reason for
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its popularity is the internet database of CD titles and tracklists which is
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accessible from within the program. This database is remarkably complete, and
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once you start using it only the most obscure titles should ever have to be
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entered manually. This database project has really mushroomed; originally Ti
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Kan (author of Xmcd) created the database format for use in his program, and
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distributed database files made up of user contributions. The files began to
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become excessively large and cumbersome, so the idea of making them
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directly accessible via the internet arose. Ti Kan recruited Steve Scherf to
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write a protocol which would make possible quick retrieval of individual
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queries, and Steve found sites which agreed to become servers. There are now
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CDDB servers distributed across the planet, and the databases are even
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accessible from behind firewalls from many HTTP servers. Information on
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incorporating the protocol into a CD-player program is available from
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<a href="http://www.cddb.com">the cddb website</a>; this material is freely
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available, and assistance is offered for freeware and shareware developers.
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<p>Unfortunately, I never have been able to get Xmcd to work consistently on
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my system; there is something in the way my ATAPI drive works which causes
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problems. Xmcd was originally written with SCSI drives in mind, and although
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ATAPI IDE drive support has been added it didn't seem to care for my drive's
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peculiarities.
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<center><h3>Tcd and Gtcd</h3></center>
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<p>I've been using Tim Gerla's simple but useful console-mode player tcd for
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several months, and have become quite adept at quickly typing in disc and
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track information. Recently Tim introduced a new version. and after unpacking
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it I was surprised and pleased to see that not only had he produced a
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GTK-based X version, but the program now supports the CDDB protocol. So one
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day I was on the internet, downloading some beta software, and started up the
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new tcd version. I was playing a disc which I hadn't entered into the
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program's database, and I happened to see a notice on the screen which said
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"[D] Download CDDB data". I gave it a try, thinking that it would probably
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take awhile, and that the particular CD I was playing probably wasn't even
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listed. Within two seconds the title and track data was displayed on the
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screen, which startled and impressed me.
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<p>This newly released version, 2.0b, is a beta, though I haven't encountered
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any but the most minor bugs. The GTK version doubtless will be revised, as
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GTK is still under active development. Here's a screenshot of the interface:
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<br>
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<center><p><img alt="Gtcd" src="./gx/ayers/gtcd.gif"></center>
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<p>It's a nice-looking interface, with that distinctive GTK look made familiar
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by the Gimp. When the CDDB button is clicked a window opens with the default
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server and port displayed in entry fields, which can then be edited depending
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on your location. A convenient drop-down menu of track titles (invoked by
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clicking the <em>Goto</em> button) is a feature not found on many players.
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<p>Most of tcd's features can be found on other X-windows players, though the
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only others which are CDDB-enabled (as far as I know) are Xmcd and the KDE
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CD-player Kscd, written by Johannes Wuebben. The last-mentioned is a very
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usable and well-done application, but requires the KDE and Qt libraries in
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order to function. Gtcd only needs gtk+-0.99.3, which is also needed by the
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Gimp.
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<p>An unusual feature is the existence of both console and X executables which
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share the same features, configuration, and database. I use X about
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two-thirds of the time, shutting it down when I'm compiling large applications
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or just writing in an editor, and it's nice to be able to use the same
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CD-player in each environment.
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<center><h3>Availability</h3></center>
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<p>As I write this, the source and binary distributions are still in the
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incoming directory at <a href="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming"
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>Sunsite</a>, with the filenames prefixed by tcd-2.0b; an alternate site is
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<a href="http://flow.ml.org/tcd/">here</a>.
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 26 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 1998</H5></center>
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