Most of the features found on real CD players are available in xmcd, such as shuffle and repeat, track programming functions, and a numeric keypad for direct track access. Additional functions include sample play, A to B segment play, volume control, etc.
A built-in CD database feature allows the CD artist/title and track titles, and other associated general purpose text to be maintained and loaded as the program is started or when a CD is inserted.
Full feature-specific pop-up help is available for all controls, indicators, text input fields, and lists.
On systems with more than one CD-ROM drive, multiple invocations of xmcd can be used to operate each drive independently.
Xmcd is designed to be easy to use, as the main window is purposely made to resemble a real CD player front panel. All other pop-up windows are also designed to be as intuitive as possible. Moreover, while the use of a mouse is natural with xmcd, all functionality can also be operated via the keyboard. This is in conformance to the guidelines published in the OSF/Motif Style Guide from the Open Software Foundation.
The internal architecture of xmcd is designed from the start to be easily portable to many operating system platforms, and adaptable to the myriad of CD-ROM drives available.
There are too many resources to list here, but the resource names and their defaults (plus descriptive comments) can be found in the LIBDIR/app-defaults/XMcd file (where LIBDIR is typically /usr/lib/X11). It is not recommended that you change values in the LIBDIR/app-defaults/XMcd file, unless you want the changes to be forced upon all users of xmcd on the system. Instead, make a copy of this file, change the copy as you see fit, then place it in your home directory. Your custom resource settings will then override the defaults when xmcd is subsequently started. Alternatively, you may also place specific resources you wish to override in the .Xdefaults file in your home directory.
You should always use the configuration program to set the device-specific parameters when installing xmcd for the first time, or when the CD-ROM hardware configuration has changed. If this is not done then xmcd will probably not operate correctly with your CD-ROM drive.
WARNING: If xmcd is not correctly configured, you may cause xmcd to deliver commands that are not supported by your CD-ROM drive. Under some environments this may lead to system hang or crash.
You can override some of the device-specific configuration parameters by adding your own configuration files. Xmcd will also look in HOME/.xmcdcfg/DEVICE file for device-specific parameters (where HOME is your home directory and DEVICE is as specified above). Parameters found in this file will override the system defaults (except those parameters that cannot be overridden; see the comments in the XMCDLIB/config/dev.config for details).
The CD database and track programming functions are operated via the CD Database/Track Program Editor pop-up subwindow. You activate the subwindow by pressing the cddb/prog button (file cabinet symbol) on the main window (See "CD DATABASE" below).
There will not be a per-item description of all the features, because full on-line help is available (See "ONLINE HELP" below).
During program play, the prog indicator in the main window display area "illuminates".
You must perform a "save" operation (press the Save button) after typing in the database information before ejecting the CD or exiting, or the information will be lost. If this is the first time this CD database entry is being stored, you will be asked to select a category (rock, classical, jazz, etc.) under which to classify the CD. The category is used by xmcd to determine the actual directory in the filesystem to write the database file.
Once the database information has been saved, the cddb indicator on the xmcd main window display area "illuminates".
You must type the CD information into the database because the CD's table of contents (TOC) contains only the number of tracks and the starting address of each track, but not the actual disc and track titles.
The CD database window should prove to be intuitive to use. You may use the on-line help system to obtain specific help information about the various buttons and items.
The CD database information is stored in text files, one per CD, in a designated directory (category). The path of this directory is XMCDLIB/cddb/CATEGORY, where XMCDLIB is the directory specified by the XMcd.libdir resource, and CATEGORY is the category name selected when Save is performed. The list of categories used is specified by the XMcd.dbdir resource. In addition, if the XMcd.dbdir resource contains full directory path names, then these will be used without prefixing the XMCDLIB/cddb.
You may view the list of directories that xmcd will search for CD database files by pressing the About... button and viewing the pop-up information window.
The file name of each CD database entry is a hexadecimal representation of a special "magic" number computed by xmcd based on the number of tracks, track timings, and other available information about this CD. This method is used because there is no reliable unique CD identifier to be found on the CD itself (the CD standard allows for a readable IPC/barcode but very few CDs actually contain such information).
Since different pressings of the same CD may sometimes contain slightly different track timings, the resultant magic number computed by xmcd on these CDs will be different. Thus, if you load a CD that is not the same one that a CD database entry was created with (but is actually the same CD title), xmcd may not recognize it and display the database information automatically when you insert the CD. In this event, you can search the CD database and find the appropriate entry, and establish a "link" to it. To do so, press the Link button, and select the appropriate category on the popup window. Xmcd will then present another pop-up window containing a list of all CD database entries in the specified category (that has the same number of tracks as the currently inserted disc). Select the appropriate entry and a link will be made in the CD database.
The Link feature alleviates the need to type in CD database information again and avoids duplicate CD database entries.
In very rare occasions it is possible that the magic number of a CD conflicts with that of another. This is a problem that will be addressed in a future release of xmcd.
rock:classical:jazz:newage:soundtrack:misc
This string will cause xmcd to search the following directories for CD database files:
XMCDLIB/cddb/rock
XMCDLIB/cddb/classical
XMCDLIB/cddb/jazz
etc.
You may also specify absolute path names in the XMCD_DBPATH entries. Example:
rock:classical:/usr/john/industrial:/usr/john/techno
Xmcd also contains code contributed by several dedicated individuals. See the README file in the xmcd distribution for information.
Comments, suggestions, and bug reports are always welcome.