4/29/99

What it is:

AudioCDgh is an AppleScript Extension. It gives new commands and abilities to AppleScript or other Open Scripting Architecture languages. The commands that AudioCDgh provides deal with controlling the CD ROM drive and the playback of Audio CDs.

Requirements:

• A CD ROM drive.
• A driver extension compatible with Apple's own driver, preferably Apple's own driver.
• Audio CDs.
• AppleScript. (Installed by default with recent MacOS versions).
• MacOS 7 or above.

Installation:

Drop the file "AudioCDgh" onto your System Folder. An alert dialog should appear informing you that extension has been placed in the "Scripting Additions" folder. If you've previously installed it, remove the GTQ "Audio CD" scripting extension.

Usage:

The Script Editor application has an "Open Dictionary..." menu item in the "File" menu. Choose it, click on the "Scripting Additions" button and choose the "AudioCDgh" file. You will be presented with a scrolling list of the various commands that AudioCDgh provides. From this list, the examples provided and a basic knowledge of AppleScript, you should be able to soon learn to write your own scripts.

For example

• Place an audio CD in your CD ROM drive.
• Choose "New Script" from the "File" Menu of the Script Editor application.
• Into the untitled document, paste the line "play audio cd starting with track 2".
• Click on the "Run" button.
• If all goes well, the CD should start playing. If not, well, you get what you pay for.

Localization:

Non-English speaking users might be interested in knowing that the name for the "CD Remote Prefs" is in a STR# resource inside the extension accessible via the ResEdit utility.

Bug Reports/Salutations/Feature Requests/Code Requests:

Such correspondence can be sent via e-mail to grhowes@kagi.com.

Known Problems:

Some drivers do not allow you to set a stop point after beginning playback. There is no work around for this, you will just have to muddle along.

Legal Stuff:

AudioCDgh is free for noncommercial distribution. If you want to include this as a part of a package for which money is charged, please arrange terms with me first. Any loss of data or other damage is the sole responsibility of the user.

Thanks to:

The writers of Tech Note DV 22 (Chris Brown, Neil Day & Brian Bechtel) where I got all the Apple CD Driver calls.

The many people who tested this out and made suggestions which were incorporated into this extension's design.

The University of North Dakota-Grand Forks for giving me a solid college education at a moderate price.

Look for:

My other CD controlling software, all on www.genhelp.com:

• InCDius GH - A utility to download the names of your tracks from the Internet CD Database, the CDDB.
• Audio Strip GH - A set of Control Strip Modules to give convenient access to your playing controls.
• Remote Remote GH - A cute little application which will control another computer's CD drive.

Compiled using:

The C and Rez compilers of Metrowerk's CodeWarrior Pro 4.

Changes:

• Since 1.1.3b2
  • Added command to retrieve the current CD time and the total disk length.
  • Put the dictionary entry for next track/last track back into the play command.
  • Fixed bug where you couldn't play audio CDs that ended with a data track
  • Moved Read Me file to this HTML format.
• Since 1.1.3b1
  • Added play cd program which will work with only the Apple drivers.
  • Added UPC command to read from the relatively few disks that actually have one. Will stop playback when called.
• Since 1.1.2
  • Can now play tracks greater than 10.
  • Should work with IDE drives.
  • Now has "number of audio tracks" command.
  • Information for Track now indicates if a specified track is audio or not.
• Since 1.1.1:
  • Will now return the track names for the last 2 tracks.
  • Changed the keyword "state" to "play state" in order to work around conflict with OT/PPP.
• Since 1.1:
  • Worked around problem with Audio Setup 5.1.1 with some drives (CD 600), which would cause playback to halt mid-track for no apparent reason.
  • Should no longer be fooled by non-audio CD's masquerading as audio CD's.
  • Removed checking for the audio CD gestalt selector; should make it work with more drives.
  • Should now eject an empty CD tray when given an "eject CD" command.
  • Should now return a meaningful error number instead of generic -1708 (errAENotHandled).
  • Should work better with hybrid CDs, including returning the true magic number.
• Since 1.0:
  • Added "magic number" command. This returns the same identification number used by the AppleCD Audio Player to differentiate between different audio disks.
  • Made extension work with quite a few more drives.
  • Added syntax "next track/last track" to the play command. This was done in order to support Remote Remote GH, my standalone player.
  • Added "number of drives" command. This returns the number of drives attached to your computer which the extension can control.
  • Fixed bug which could cause crashes if the "CD Remote Programs" file was damaged.