Intro
Introduction

  Clarion is a media player for MIDIs and Audio CDs.  (The program can also play AVIs, or any MCI device for which you have installed the appropriate MCI driver.  However, it's designed mainly for playing MIDIs and Audio CDs.)  Clarion is 32-bit and runs on Windows95/NT. You need a sound card and (optionally) a CD drive, of course.


Features

•	CDDB support: lookup CD track titles via the internet.

•	Support for MIDI and Audio CD.  Plus any media for which the appropriate MCI driver has been installed.

•	Open multiple play lists at once!

•	Registry of CD track titles.

•	Built-in file browser.

•	Easy (read: lazy) file / CD track selection.

•	PlayList management / organization.

•	Play modes galore -- straight, random, shuffle, repeat, single repeat, span (across different play lists).

•	"Sleep" mode minimizes app to an icon in the system tray and uses virtually zero CPU cycle.

•	Drag and drop files from Explorer (aka File Manager).

•	Heck, drag and drop items everywhere!

•	Play position control via trackbar.

•	Selectable volume control program.

•	Floating miniature control panel that gives access to the program's major function at all time.

•	Flexible startup and save options.

•	and it's FREE!


Install/Uninstall

To install, create a directory for Clarion and unzip the distribution file into it.  To uninstall, just remove the directory.  The program does not make any change to your system files or registry.

Important!

Version 0.7.2 and later of Clarion requires version 4.70 or later of ComCtl32.dll.  If you've installed any Microsoft product of late, you probably have this file installed in your \windows\system already.  Otherwise, you can get the file from my home page.


First thing first

First and foremost, CLICK ON EVERYTHING.  Hold the mouse pointer over any element on the screen and wait a second for the popup hint or read the hint in the status bar at the bottom.  You can pretty much learn how to use the program this way!


Parts of the screen

The screen is divided into two major parts.  On the left are the PlayList, the display panel, and the control panel (with the play, next, prev, stop buttons).  On the right is the Files/CD browser, which lets you browse your folders and add files (MIDIs, WAVs, etc.) and CD tracks to your play list.  The narrow vertical strip in the middle shows the tracks on your audio CD (assuming you have a CD drive and there's a CD in it).  (This is slightly redundant since the CD browser does pretty much the same.  It's a leftover from a previous version.  I decided to keep since it takes up little space and allows you to access CD track even when the browser is toggled off.)  To the left of the CD strip is the PlayList toolbar for, well, doing various things with the PlayList.  There's also a floating toolbar outside the main screen (I call it the floater).  The floater has a miniature control panel and always stays on top so you can access it anytime.


Adding files to the play list

If you have the AutoSelect box checked, then just click on a file name to add it to the play list.  This is a lazy way of selecting files and I like it.  Uncheck AutoSelect if you want to select files the usual way (i.e., with Ctrl+click and Shift+click for multiselection).  Then to add the selected files to the play list, click the [image] button on the play list toolbar.  Click [image] to add everything in the file list box to the play list.  Click the refresh button [image] to reload the file list. Click the Explorer button [image] to open the currently displayed folder.  Shift+click to open it in "Explorer" mode.  You can also move or delete files right in the file browser.  To rename a file, select it then press Return or F2.  You don't need to type in an extension, by the way: the program remembers the extension and will automatically fill it in.  Click "Show new files only" [image] if you want to remove from the files browser all the files that are already in the PlayList.

>>HINT: To see what any button does, just hold the mouse pointer over it for a second. A hint bubble will pop up.  The same hint is also display in the status bar

To add a CD track to the play list, just click on the track number, either in the black strip or in the CD tab in the browser. Click while holding down Alt to add and play the track immediately.


Play
Basic play operation

Press Play [image] to play.  While playing, press it again to pause and again to resume.  There's no rewind button: when you click on Stop [image], it automatically rewinds. To fast forward/reverse, click on the track bar and drag. Click the button with the return arrow while a song is playing to start over at the beginning.  Click [image] and [image] to play the previous / next item in the play list.  Click [image] to stop and start over at the beginning.  Click [image] to remove the currently playing item from the play list (this does not delete the file from the disk).


Selection
Marking and playing a portion of a song

Occasionally, you only want to play only a portion of a song.  For example,  you may want to skip the first 10 seconds of a CD track.  Clarion lets you mark a selection (a start and end point where playback should occur).  To mark a selection, click Play.  Then drag the slier to where you want to mark the start or end point.  To mark a start point, click with the left mouse button on the % indicator [image]. To mark an end point, click with the right mouse button on the % indicator.

You may define only a start point (and play until the end), or only an end point (and start from the beginning), or  both a start and end point.  To clear the selection (i.e., revert to playing the entire song), click on the % indicator [image] while holding down the shift key.

To play a selection, just click Play [image] as usual.


The Play List

Clarion lets you organize your MIDIs and CD tracks into play lists (or albums) and save them. (Play list files are saved with the .pls extension.) You can have both MIDIs and CD tracks in the same play list.  It's not a good idea to have tracks from different CDs in the same list, however, since Clarion does not support CD changers (sorry, I don't have a CD changer so I didn't program for it.)

On the play list toolbar, click [image] to bring up a menu for opening, saving, or reloading a recently used play list.  Select one or more items in the play list, then click the [image] / [image] button to move them up/down.  Ctrl+click the [image] / [image] button to bring the items to the top/bottom of the play list.  Shift+click the [image]  button to move the items below the one currently playing (so that them will be played next).  Click [image] to remove selected items from the list.  Click [image] to empty the play list.  Click [image] to move selected items to the trash (Shift+Click to really delete them).  Confused?  Just hold the mouse over a button and a hint will pop up.


The display panel

The display panel shows information about the currently playing item -- length, elapsed time, remaining time position in play list, and name.  It also has labels you can click on to toggle and select various things.  When the toggle is on, the label has a bold, bright green font.  Here's a description of these toggles and options:

•	'Floater': hide or show the floater.

•	'Auto': when on, automatically plays on startup or any new item added to the list (provided there is nothing currently playing).

•	Play order options: 'Normal', 'Shuffled', or 'Random'.

-	Normal: play songs in the order listed.

-	Shuffled: guarantees that each song gets played once per cycle in random order

-	Random: is truly random, i.e., the program may play the same songs several times and others not at all (although it will get to them all eventually).

•	Playing mode options: 'Once', 'Straight', 'Cycle', 'Repeat', 'Span', or 'Span Cycle'

-	Once: play current song then stop.

-	Straight: play current list once.

-	Cycle: play current list over and over.

-	Repeat: play current song over and over.

-	Span: iterate through all opened lists (degrades to Straight if only one list is opened).

-	Span Cycle: iterate through all opened lists over and over (degrades to Cycle if only one list is opened).

The upper right hand corner of the display panel shows the total length of the entire play list, e.g., Total [2:40:12].  If you have more than 1 items selected, then it displays the total length of the selected items.  If the display shows [??], it means that the total length is not known.  That is, there is at least 1 item whose length is not known.  The program cannot determine length of MIDIs and other media files until it has opened them.  Of course once you've played the item, then the length is known.  It is recommended therefore that you save your play list since this will save the length information.

If you need to know the total length when it is not yet known, then double click on the [??].  The program will then determine all the lengths of individual songs.  (This may take a while.)


The Floater

The floater has a miniature control panel that gives you access to the program even when the main window is minimized.  You can move the floater around the screen by clicking on an empty spot and drag.  Click the X button to hide the floater.  Shift+click the X button to quit the program.  Click on the red/blue area to move the floater to the bottom/top of the screen.


Multiple play lists

Yes, you can open multiple play lists at once.  The program uses the familiar tabbed notebook interface.  There's a "tabs menu", activated by clicking [image]. The tabs menu lists all tabs (i.e., play lists) currently opened.  You can switch among the lists by clicking on their respective tabs or via the tabs menu.  To move (copy) selected items among one list to another: 1) make your selection; 2) shift (ctrl) + click on the tabs menu; 3) select the destination list.


Sleep mode

You can put Clarion into 'sleep' mode by hitting F4 or clicking on the status bar at the bottom.  This minimizes the program down to an icon in the system tray.  You can restore the program by clicking on the icon.  Right click on the icon to invoke the popup menu from which you can control most of the program's functions.

While in sleep mode, the program uses virtually zero CPU cycles.  Its window is also hidden so that you have fewer items on your task bar.  Sleep mode is perfect for when you want to play music in the background while you are doing other things.


CD operations

To eject the CD drive door, click the eject button [image]. To close the door and load the tracks, shift+click on the eject button [image].  Note: if your CD cannot be closed by software, e.g., it does not have a tray, then insert it manually then shift+click on the eject button.  Clarion assigns a signature number to each CD.  The signature is calculated as: length of CD (in milliseconds) times number of tracks.  If the signature of a track in your play list does not match the signature of the CD in the drive, Clarion will skip mark the item with a red X (to indicate an error condition) and skip to the next item.

Clarion keeps a registry of CD track titles. Take the trouble to enter titles for your CD tracks once and the program will recognize your CD and their tracks next time. The first time you insert a new CD, you have three options: 1)  you can lookup the information via the internet CD database (CDDB); 2) you can enter the information yourself, in which case you should enter the artist / title of the CD; or 3) you can tell Clarion to ignore the CD.  For choice 1 and 2, you can also (optionally) open a new play list and link the CD to this play list.

Note: to edit a track title, click on the track title you want to change and press Enter or F2.  Press Enter again when you're done editing or Esc to cancel.

Upon exiting, Clarion automatically saves track info you've entered.  You can click the Save button to manually save in case "something happens".  Of course Clarion is extremely stable and never known to crash -- ever, but you may want to be safe... ;-)


Linking a CD to a play list

You can link a CD to a particular PlayList so that whenever you put in that CD, the linked PlayList will load and start playing.  If you want to link the CD to another play list, you can:

a) Click on the blue label in the CD browser and choose a PlayList from the disk; or b) Select 'Link CD' from the drop down menu.  You can link the CD to the current PlayList or some other PlayList on the disk.

You can manually load a linked PlayList either by shift+clicking on the blue label or select 'Load linked PlayList' from the menu.  If for some reason you no longer want to link the CD to any PlayList, choose 'Unlink' from the menu.


CDDB Lookup

The internet CD database (CDDB) is a free, public-domain database of CD information.  If you have access to the internet and you are not behind a firewall, you can use Clarion to connect to a CDDB server and download CD and track titles, saving you from having to enter the information yourself.  The CDDB currently contains over 50000 CDs, so chances are good that many of your CDs are already in the database.

Whenever you insert a new CD, Clarion will give you an option to do a CDDB lookup.  In the CDDB lookup dialog, enter your user (or login) name.  Your username should contain no space.  Next, choose from the drop down list the CDDB server closest to you, then click Connect.

Often an exact match will be found and Clarion will retrieve the information automatically.  Sometimes, one or more approximate matches are found, in which case you will be prompted to pick the one that you think best matches your CD.  Once the disc and track titles are retrieved, you have the chance to accept or reject them.  You can also accept only some of the disc titles by highlighting them in the usual way then click Accept Selected.

Occasionally, no match is found at all, in which case you are encouraged to enter the information yourself and submit it to the database.  See submitting data to the CDDB.


CDDB Submit

All the information in the CDDB are submitted by users like you, so if you have a CD that you did not find in the database, you are encouraged to do the same and contribute to the database.  First enter the CD and track titles in the CD list then click Submit.  In the submit dialog, review the information, select a category, then click Next.  In the last screen, enter your e-mail if you haven't done so.  It's important to put in your correct e-mail so that the server can contact you if a problem occurs.  You also need to enter your SMTP (outgoing mail) host.  It is usually something like smtp.mycompany.com.  (If you don't know what your SMTP host is, ask your ISP.  If you're really in a crunch, just put in usc.edu  You didn't hear this from me, though :-)  Finally, click Send.

Note: if all goes well, you will NOT hear from the CDDB server.  If a problem occurs, the server will send you a notice of failure.  You should forward this notice to me <luutran@geocities.com> so I can determine whether there is a problem with the program.


Options dialog

You can bring up the Options dialog from the menu or by hitting Alt+O.  Here's a descriptions of items in the Options dialog:

•	'MIDI reset': select how you want MIDI reset to be done.  You can select GM, GS, XG, or custom reset,  Note: do NOT delete the files named XX_reset.mid.  These are used by Clarion for this purpose.  If your sound card can or needs to be reset by playing a custom .mid file (usually supplied by the card manufacturer), select Custom reset and specify the file.

•	Volume Control: by default, Clarion uses Window's sndvol32.exe program for volume control.  If you want to use a different program, you can specify it here.  You also need to specify the title of the program as it appears on its caption bar (For sndvol32.exe, this is 'Volume Control'.  This allows Clarion to bring the program up while it is running without having to launch another instance.

•	File Location: lets you specify the directory where *.cdl files are stored.  These are files that hold track information for your CDs.  By default, these files are placed in the same directory Clarion was installed in. If you want to put them in another directory, create the directory, move all existing *.cdl files into it, then point Clarion to the new directory.

•	Misc: lets you a) change the display font; b) specify whether you want to have multiple rows of tabs in the play list display (this option will take effect the next time you run Clarion); c) control how hints are displayed; d) specify whether play lists may have duplicate items; and e) whether the linked play list (if it exists) is automatically closed when you eject the CD.

•	Startuo and save options: lets you specify various things Clarion should or should not do on startup, as well as how play lists should be saved on exit.


Hints Tips Secrets

•	You can select multiple items in any list the usual way (with Shift and Ctrl click).

•	The selection bar (highlight) in the play list does NOT follow the item that is currently being played (indicated by a left pointing triangle).  This allows you to shift/move/delete an item in the list while another item is playing. To move the selection bar to the song being played, click on the item's name in the black display panel.

•	The file list box can be toggled on and off by clicking on the disk and CD drive icon.

•	DRAG AND DROP EVERYWHERE!

•	To move items around in the play list quickly, use drag and drop.

•	You can drag files from the Explorer and drop them onto Clarion.  The files will be added to the PlayList.  If you drop a PlayList file (.pls) onto Clarion, it will MERGE the files in that PlayList into the current PlayList.

•	You can drag files from the CD / Files browser and drop them into the PlayList.

•	If you have multiple play lists opened, you can copy items from one list to another by dragging and dropping them on the tab of the destination list.  (By tab, I mean the physical tab you click on to switch to a list.)  If you want to move instead of copy, hold down the shift key as you perform the drag and drop.  You can also drag items from the CD or files browser and drop them onto a tab to add to a playlist without having to switch to that tab first.

•	Double click on an item in the play list to immediately start playing it.  Double click on a file in the file list box to add it the PlayList and immediately start playing it.  For the CD strip and the CD browser, alt+click on a track number does the same thing.

•	To sort the PlayList by Name, Length, or File name, click on the corresponding column heading.  Click the heading again to sort by reverse order.  You can resize and rearrange the order of the column (click on the column heading and drag).  The same applies to the file list.

•	Clarion will save the window settings and reloads the current play list (if you have saved it) on the next startup.

•	If you've moved the floater off the screen somewhere and can't fish it out, double click on the 'Floater' label in the display panel.  This will bring the floater back to the top left corner of the screen.

•	Press Ctrl+Q to quit the program WITHOUT saving any play list.  (Skip the annoying confirmation prompts.)

•	In any list, press Ctrl+I to invert the selection.

•	Shortcut keys for common operations abound.  They are shown in the popup hints and on the main menu.


History

Version 0.9.2: (7-Oct-97)

•	Added confirmation dialog for CDDB lookup.  After CD info are retrieved, you can accept all, some, or none of the returned CD track titles.

•	Fixed CDDB lookup mishandling of long lines that have been split.

•	The program now allows longer disc and track titles for CDDB submit (it will automatically split up long lines to conform to CDDB format specifications).

Version 0.9.1.1: (2-Oct-97)

•	Fixed a CDDB bug which overzealously prevents you from doing a submission following a lookup that did not produce a good match.

•	Now opens CD in ‘shareable’ mode.

Version 0.9.1: (22-Sept-97)

•	Added help file!  Finally.  Thanks to Jacques Serre for converting my readme file to a decent help file.

•	Fixed a bug that caused moving the slider backward to start over at the beginning.  Curious that this one wasn’t reported sooner!

Version 0.9.0: (12-Sept-97)

•	The program no longer stops between CD tracks, so it now correctly plays concert CDs and certain classical CDs containing continuous tracks.  (This of course only works if you are not using random or shuffled play.)

•	Added 2 new options: close linked play list when ejecting CD; and open linked play list on startup.

•	Fixed a small bug with the file browser that was causing the file list to be updated more than once -- unnecessarily.

•	Misc bug fixes.

Version 0.8.9.9: (01-Sept-97)

•	Added CDDB capability.  CDDB is a free, user-supported database of CD information (disc, track titles, etc.) on the internet.  If you have an internet connection and you're not behind a firewall, you can look up CD information and not have to enter track titles manually.  If your CD is not already  in the database, you are encouraged to submit to the database  and make the information available to others.  For more information go to http://www.cddb.com/

•	Fixed occasional premature cut-off of end of song (by 1 to 2 seconds) when in Sleep mode.

•	Added Once play mode -- play one song and stop.

•	Fixed slow skipping of CD tracks whose signatures do not match the CD in drive.

•	Fixed adding wrong CD track when pressing the Space bar in the CD list.

•	Others (??)

Version 0.8.9.2: (31-Jul-97)

•	Added remaining time display (as opposed to just elapsed time).

•	You can now view the total length of selected songs.  Select several songs and watch the upper right corner of the display panel.  If you have no song selected or just one song selected, then the total length of all songs in the play list is displayed.

•	Fixed minor bugs.

Version 0.8.9.1: (22-Jul-97)

•	Fixed access violation when adding a CD track with no play list opened.

•	Fixed premature ending of certain midi files.

•	Fixed a bug that broke launching of files from the Explorer when "Reopen play lists on startup" is turned off.

Version 0.8.9: (4-Jul-97)

•	Fixed a bug that causes a song to be played repeatedly in "Once" mode (this happens if there is only one song in the list).

•	Fixed a bug with *.cdl directory not terminated with a \

•	Added several more options:

1)	Allow duplicate entries in play lists.

2)	Ignore CD on startup.  Useful if you are in the habit of leaving your CD in the drive but don't want Clarion to load it on startup.  Note: a) this of course does not apply if you have Windows' Auto CD Play feature enabled and have just inserted a CD; b) to manually load the CD, shift+click on the eject/close button.

3)	Other startup options: always start up in "Sleep" mode; reopen files on startup.

4)	Save options: automatic, manual, or ask user.

Version 0.8.8: (14-Jun-97)

•	Added an N seconds delay between songs.  You can set the delay in the Options (Alt+O) dialog box.  The default is zero (no delay).  Note: if you get impatient while the program is delaying, just click on Play (F5) and it will start playing immediately.

•	Fixed a bug that causes an error when renaming a song in the play list.

•	Fixed a bug that causes an error when dragging the trackbar with no play list opened.

Version 0.8.7: (12-May-97)

•	Lots of little bug fixes.

•	Added ability to specify a selection (starting and ending point) for a playing item.  This allows you to, for example, skip the first or last X seconds of a song, or play Y seconds of the middle of the song.  Also, if you have a CD that combines several movements into one track, you can split it into separate movements as follows: 1) add the track; 2) specify start and end point of first movement; 3) add the track again; 4) specify start and end point of second movement, etc.

By default, there is no selection.  That is. the start (end) point is the start (end) of the entire song.  To specify the start (end) point of a selection, first hit Play, move the trackbar slider to where you want to set the point, then click with the left (right) mouse button on the percent label (next to the track bar).  The selection is shown visually in the track bar.  Note that the selection does not take effect until the next time you play the song.  If you already have a selection defined and drag the slider past the left (right) of the start (end) point, the start (end) point is reset to default.  To clear the selection, shift+click on the percent label.

Version 0.8.6: (2-May-97)

•	Added options to make Clarion the default player for Audio CD and/or MIDI files.  Once done, double click on a MIDI file or right click on the CD drive and select Play will launch Clarion.  If you have CD autoplay turned on, just pop in a CD and Clarion will start up and play it.

•	You can now add PlayLists from the files browser.  Select 'Play Lists' from the drop down filter box, then add play lists as you would any file.  Note: to open selected play lists in separate tabs, click the add ( < ) button.  To merge selected play lists into the current one, use drag and drop.

•	Added shortcut key: in any list, press Ctrl+I to invert the selection.

•	By default, if you drag and drop items from one tab to another, the items are copied over.  To move instead of copy, hold down the shift key as you drop the items on the destination tab.

Version 0.8.5: (28-Apr-97)

•	Fixed problem with the position indicator and access error double clicking on an empty file list.  Reduced (I hope) CD scanning between tracks,

•	Check out the new Options dialog (Alt+O).  You can select MIDI reset, volume control program etc there.

•	Added more items to the popup menu of the system tray icon (right click to activate).  You can now pretty much control Clarion while it's in sleep mode.

•	You can now move the *.cdl files to a directory of your choice.  Then point Clarion to the new location in the Options dialog. Note: each cdl file is only about 1K in size, but if you're using Win95 and have a large cluster size (>16K), these files can rapidly fill up space.  So if you're concerned about this, move these files to a partition with small cluster size.  If you don't know what this is all about, don't worry about it.

•	Updated the readme.txt file.

Version 0.8.3: (21-Apr-97)

•	Added "sleep" mode.  Click on the status bar at the bottom or hit F4 to minimize the app to an icon in the Windows95 system tray.  This does two things: 1) free up space in your task bar and 2) minimize CPU usage.  Normally, when Clarion is playing a midi or CD with the main window minimized, it uses about 0.8% to 1.5% of CPU.  Not a whole lot, I admit, but heh, if your system is as slow as mine...  Anyway, in sleep mode, Clarion's CPU usage goes down to 0 (as reported by Microsoft's Wintop; YMMV).  In comparison, Windows' CD player CPU usage while playing with window minimized is a little over 3%.  To get out of sleep mode, just click on Clarion's icon in the system tray.  Right click on the icon to bring up a popup menu.  Sleep mode is perfect when you want to have the program play in the background while you do other things (you DO do other things on your PC, don't you :)

Version 0.8.2: (18-Apr-97)

•	New play order options: Normal, Shuffled, and Random.  'Normal' means play songs in the order listed.  'Shuffled' and 'Random' both mean play songs in random order.  The difference is that 'Shuffled' guarantees that each song gets played once per cycle whereas 'Random' is truly random, i.e., the program may play the same songs several times and others not at all (although it will get to them all eventually).  Combine the different play orders with the different play modes (Once, Cycle, Repeat, etc.) yield quite a few variations.  In line with my minimalist approach to documentation, I'll let you figure out what they are :)

•	When a new CD is detected, the program now prompts for the CD's title, opens a new play list with the same name, and link the CD to said play list.

•	In the About box, double click on my web address to launch your assigned browser and go to my home page.  Same goes for my email.

•	As always, miscellaneous bug fixes.

Version 0.8.0: (15-Apr-97)

•	Changed the small font used in the display panel, which was causing problems on some systems.

•	The size of the browser was not properly restored between sessions when the screen was maximized.  This has been fixed.

•	You can now open multiple play lists at once!  The program uses the familiar tabbed notebook interface.  There's a new "tabs menu", activated by clicking the button below the musical note button. The tabs menu lists all tabs (i.e., play lists) currently opened.  You can switch among the lists by clicking on their respective tabs or via the tabs menu.  To move (copy) selected items among one list to another: 1) make your selection; 2) shift (ctrl) + click on the tabs menu; 3) select the destination list.

•	Click on the MIDI reset label to see the new options.  You can select GM, GS, XG, or custom reset (for cards that require it).  If your sound card can or needs to be reset by playing a custom .mid file, copy this file into the directory in which Clarion resides and name it RESET.MID.

•	More playing modes than you can shake a stick at:

-	Straight: play current list once.

-	Cycle: play current list over and over.

-	Repeat: play current song over and over.

-	Span: iterate through all opened lists (degrades to Straight if only one list is opened).

-	Span Cycle: iterate through all opened lists over and over (degrades to Cycle if only one list is opened).

•	Undocumented feature #1: right click on any tab to switch to the tab which has the song currently playing.

•	Undocumented feature #2: by default, the notebook only displays one row of tabs.  If all tabs do no fits on one rows, you need to use the scroll buttons.  If you want to have multiple rows of tabs so that all tabs are visible at once, add this line under the [Settings] section of Clarion.ini:

MultilineTabs=1

•	* Undocumented feature #3: press Ctrl+F6 to cycle through the tabs; Shift+F6 cycles in reverse order.  Press Ctrl+1 (that's number one on the main keyboard) through Ctrl+0 to switch to tab 1 through 10.

Version 0.7.4:

•	File browser now shows file size, type, and last modified date.  As with the PlayList, you can resize each column, rearrange the column order by drag and drop, and sort by ascending or descending order (e.g., you can have the newest files appear at the top.) The program will save your preference.

Version 0.7.3:

•	Now comes with sample MIDI files !! (copyright Yahama Corporation).

•	Added multiselection in PlayList.  You can now select multiple items in the PlayList then move them around or remove / delete them.

•	Added single click open for the directory list box. Why waste energy double clicking?

•	Fixed access violation bug when drag-and-dropping into an empty PlayList.  (For once, it wasn't my fault; it was Borland's :)

Version 0.7.2:

•	Added "show new only" button in the File List to show only files that are not already in the PlayList.

•	Added Length column to PlayList and CD List, showing the time length of the file or track.  Note: the program does not show the length for files until they're played.  That's because it needs to actually open the file to determine its time length. To do this for every file as it is added would simply take too long (you may not care about the length anyway).  The upper right corner of the display panel shows the total time of the PlayList -- at least the total time of those files whose length is known.  If you double click on the total time, the program will go through each file and determine its length (this may take a while).

•	Added grid lines to the PlayList and CDList.  The column order can now be rearranged.  Click on the column heading and drag it left or right.  The program will retain the column order and widths between sessions.  Cool!  Thanks to Brad Stowers <http://www.pobox.com/~bstowers/delphi/> for the excellent TExtListView component.

•	You can now sort the PlayList by length, title, or filename.  Just click on the corresponding column heading.  Click it again to sort by reverse order.

Version 0.7.0:

•	MORE buttons!

•	Added button on play panel to remove the currently playing item from the PlayList (no need to select it first).

•	Added buttons to delete/move/copy files from the files browser.

•	You can now rename a file in the file browser.  Select a file and press Return or F2.

•	You can now drag items from the CD or File browser and drop them into the PlayList.  Select the items you want to add, drag them over to the PlayList, and drop them on the item you want to insert the new items after.

•	Clock display no longer flickers!

•	and as always, a variety of bug fixes.

Version 0.6.8:

•	On startup, the program now checks whether there is already a copy running and, if so, quit. If you associate clarion.exe with MIDI files (or any other media types), you can double click on a .mid file and Clarion will add it to the PlayList -- without spawning another instance of the program.

•	Added 'AutoPlay' toggle.  If AutoPlay is on, Clarion will automatically play 1) the first item in the PlayList when it is opened; or 2) the first item added to the PlayList when nothing is playing.  If AutoPlay is off, the program will (in both cases) move the pointer to the item to be played next without actually playing it.

Version 0.6.7:

•	New, slimmer floater!

Version 0.6.6:

•	Added a new (improved?) routine for editing names.  To edit a name (either in the PlayList or CD tab), point to the item and press Return.  Press Return again when done or Esc to cancel.

•	Added Merge to menu (append contents of another PlayList to the current one).

•	Added shortcut keys for the CD tab:

'+'	add track

<space>	add and play immediately.

Version 0.6.5:

•	Lots and lots of bugs fixed!  Ugh!

•	Delete (trash) button now moves the file to the recycle bin.  If you want to really delete, shift+click the trash icon.

•	Added CD title display in the 'File' column of the PlayList window.

•	Added the following shortcut keys:

F5	Play|Pause

F6	Previous

F7	Next

F8	Stop

F9	Toggle browser.

F10	Invoke menu.

In the PlayList (when not editing):

'-'	remove item

<Del>	move item to trash (+shift to really delete)

<space>	play the item immediately.

Version 0.6.4:

•	Added full window (as opposed to just outline) dragging for the floater.  Rather cool ghost trail effect!

•	Main window can now be maximized, although severe tire damage may ensue :)

Version 0.6.3:

•	Fixed weird window sizing bugs.  I'm sure there are more, but where?

Version 0.6.2:

•	Added 'splitter' so that the relative sizes of the left and right sides of the window can be adjusted.  Place the mouse pointer on a blank part in the middle panel (the one with the menu, trash, etc.).  The mouse cursor will turn into a horizontal split cursor; then click and drag left and right.  The window will resize in real time!

•	Added shortcut for accesing the menu (F10) and toggling the browser on and off (F8)

Version 0.6.1:

•	The window is now resizable!!

Version 0.6.0:

•	The biggest change is that Clarion now keeps a registry of CD track titles.  Take the trouble to enter titles for your CD tracks once and the program will recognize your CDs and their tracks next time.

•	Each CD can be linked to a PlayList so that whenever the CD is inserted, the program will load that PlayList. * Drag and drop files from the Explorer.

•	NOTE: I changed the CD signature generating routine, so that the program no longer recognizes signatures from the previous version.  Sorry about this :(

•	Added status bar hint.

Version 0.5.5:

•	Fixed a problem with the eject/close CD button.  Note: if your CD drive cannot be closed by software, i.e., you need to do it manually, shift+click in the CD icon. This will force it to load CD track info.

Version 0.5.4:

•	Fixed serious display problem relating to screen font size (bug in Delphi's TListView?)

•	Fixed ghost trailing while dragging in the play list. * Added font setting option.

•	Added F2 shortcut key to rename item (a la Explorer).

Version 0.5.3:

•	Added visual pointer indicating the currently playing item.

Version 0.5.1 and 0.5.2:

•	Numerous internal changes.

Version 0.5.0:

•	Initial release.


Copyright, left, and center
Copyright and Acknowledgement

This program is freeware. It may be freely distributed, and must be distributed freely (i.e., you cannot charge people except possibly a nominal handling fee ).  Also, you must include all the files in this distribution in their original form.  Needless to say, you may not alter the copyright notice.

The program is provided AS IS.  It may or may not work as intended. Please don't hold me responsible for ANYTHING (unless it's good).

I wrote Clarion to learn Delphi and have some fun.  I hope you enjoy the program and find it useful.

I thank all who have helped beta-test the program and given comments and suggestions.  A special thank goes to Jacques Serre for creating the help file.

Questions, comments, suggestions, bug reports, please send them to Luu Tran <luutran@geocities.com>

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Clarion. (C)opyright 1997 Luu Tran <luutran@geocities.com>

You can find the latest version of Clarion at

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/9860/

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Demo MIDI files (C)opyright 1996 Yamaha Corporation.

These files may be downloaded for personal use from

http://yamahaxg.ysba.com/english/xg/html/pds/pds.html

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