Snail: Dejal Userware, 12 Scorpio Place, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Internet & AOL: dejal@deepthnk.kiwi.gen.nz
CompuServe: >INTERNET: dejal@deepthnk.kiwi.gen.nz
or 100033,2435
I read the Internet mail every day, and will reply immediately (allow a couple of days for net.delay), but only call CI$ once a fortnight.
The following is a reverse-chronology of the changes in each release (public or Beta) of SndPlayer. Note that version numbers which include the letter ‘a’ or ‘b’ were Alpha or Beta Testing releases only, and as such not available to the public. I have left their details in for your interest only.
The “Release” number given is the release of the Dejal Sound Utilities, so for example the features and bugs in SndConverter Pro release 4 will be similar to those in SndPlayer release 4. Remember that the list is sorted in reverse order, so the most recent releases are at the top.
Release 6; version 2.0, 1 February 1993:
• The following is a description of the changes for each Beta edition for this release (this information will be summarised in subsequent releases):
What was the 2.0b9 release about? Two fixes.
• This is a final release candidate.
• It wasn’t resolving aliases of sub-folders in all circumstances. This is now fixed.
• It was occasionally bombing when scanning for sounds, due to accidentally disposing of a handle in the wrong place. Also fixed.
What was the 2.0b8 release about? Docs, Open All replaced, etc.
• Re-wrote the documentation as many separate files instead of two larger ones.
• Updated the balloon help file.
• Modified the code to ensure I open resource files properly.
• Open All changed to Hilited Folder / Current Folder buttons.
• Fixed mask of sys 7 suitcase icon: wasn’t a full square [thanks to Beta Tester Julian Harris for noticing the effect of this].
• Major code tidy-up.
What was the 2.0b6 release about? Fix, repeat & personalisation.
• Fixed a subtle problem with the progress bar adjustment when using the Previous function several times in a row
• Added a Repeat command to the Go menu, which can also be activated by hitting the Spacebar. Basically toggles between repeating the current sound over and over (until you skip) and playing normally, as for the Repeat One pref, but doesn’t change the preference setting. Very useful for getting a good hear of each sound in turn.
• Changed the way I handle personalising the application. Now, you won’t have to re-enter your Registered Name and Registration Code each time you upgrade.
What was the 2.0b5 release about? Fixed probs with Escape etc keys.
• The Escape, Home and End keys weren’t working. Now they do. (Home and End do the same as Up and Down, respectively).
• Also fixed a problem with the animated icons: the random starting value was sometimes negative, which meant the first icon wouldn’t show up for several seconds when that happened.
What was the 2.0b4 release about? 2.0, navigation, etc.
• Some work on tracing the problems that some users have reported with the Open All function and other Open dialog related problems.
• I now sort the sounds within suitcases alphabetically, instead of simply reading in the details in the order they are stored in the suitcase, which is effectively random order.
• Added support for the Escape key as another method of cancelling the playing, as requested by Beta Tester and Registered User Allan Marshall.
• Made the progress bar a little narrower, in line with the Finder’s.
• Keyboard navigation using the cursor keys (e.g. Left to go to the previous sound, Down to go to the last one, etc).
• “Go” menu, with First, Previous, Next and Last items.
• Pause item on File menu. I don’t know how to pause an asynch sound in mid-playing, so the Pause command will let the currently playing sound complete then wait until Pause is un-checked — you can navigate to another sound while still pausing if you like.
• Playing order features debugged.
• Renumbered the version number from 1.2 to 2.0, since there have been so many changes since the previous release (1.1); I think it is worthy of being called a major upgrade. Five (intermittent) months of my life too!!
What was the 1.2b3 release about? Beta-time!
• I am pretty happy it works OK on my machine, so I am now releasing it as a Public Beta version (previous versions were Alphas: local testing). It is public within the meaning of the conditions: anyone on JAB or DT may download it, but please don’t give it away to anyone else. Make sure you let me know what you think, positive and negative comments most welcome. Of course, if you find any bugs, please let me know!!
• Added play order prefs: normal, reverse or random. The sounds are played first-to-last, last-to-first, or in a random order, without duplication. Thanks to Registered User Francis Martin for suggesting this feature. NOTE: these features don’t work perfectly yet—they still need more work: the functionality works OK, but the user-interface is messed up a bit.
• Repeat One preference: each sound is played over-and-over again until the user chooses Skip, which takes them on to the next sound, or Cancel, which cancels the whole batch.
• Reworded the time-to-upgrade pref, thanks to Beta Tester Richard Knuckey’s comments. I hope it’s better now.
• New preferences: Display Size and Display Playing Time. Thanks to Registered User Francis Martin for suggesting the Display Playing Time feature too.
• Added “WAVE” file type to the list of recognised data fork sounds.
• Improved progress bar colour handling—colours now match System 7’s copy progress bar. Please let me know if you find any remaining colour problems.
• The version of the Help file is checked against the app’s version, and the user is alerted if they don’t match. Otherwise, if a user accidentally uses an old help file with a newer SndPlayer, some or many of the balloons could be nonsensical. The user should never see the warning, but if they do it will save some confusion and possibly agro.
• I have re-done the prefs dialog as two pages, based on SndConverter Pro’s three page prefs.
• Also there is a new format supported: the System 7 suitcase format.
• System 6 testing: added dialog centring under System 6 and fixed a few incompatiblity problems.
• Repeat All preference. When the batch of sounds has been played, they are played again from the start, in a loop, until the user Cancels the window.
• New Display Sound Number and Display Sampling Rate preferences.
• Also changed the text in the progress dialog to make it more useful.
• The registration reminder dialog now appears.
• Time to upgrade feature: 4 months after the release date a dialog will appear suggesting the user looks for an upgrade. Repeats once a month after that. Includes checkbox to tell it to get lost. It won't put up the dialog the first time the app is run, and won't put it up if it couldn't previously write the prefs file, or if the system date is before the release date. I quite like this feature, and think I've done it in a very unobtrusive way.
Release 4; version 1.1, 11 May 1992:
• Added personalisation to the About dialog (though there is no hassle dialog, yet… I am evaluating whether I need one or not).
• Balloon help is now in a separate file, so users can reduce the amount of space taken by the application by removing the Help file.
• The application now has colour icons for the Finder. You will need to rebuild your Desktop file to see the new icons (which of course you do frequently, don’t you? <grin>).
• Also, several cosmetic changes have been done (e.g. alert and dialog buttons are now a better size and behave in a more standard way).
Release 3; version 1.0.2, 3 March 1992:
• No significant changes since release 2.
• Rebuilt the app using the latest release of the compiler.
• Made a few minor improvements to the documentation.
Release 2; version 1.0.1, 28 February 1992:
• Fixed fault in the Open All button handling which caused it to fail when reading off a floppy (or volumes other than the default disk).
• Cosmetic change to the animated icon to avoid it flashing on B&W machines under System 7.x.
• Fixed bug which caused the system speaker volume level to not be restored on quitting unless the prefs were written.
• Added some code so that alias files within a folder would be resolved.
• Fixed bug that caused SoundEdit files to not be closed and some memory used up if the sound was too big.
• A few minor cosmetic changes.
• Only released locally.
Release 1; version 1.0, 24 February 1992: First international public release.
• Enhanced Volume menu handling to reflect changes made in the background.
• Totally revamped the application based on the SndConverter 1.0.1 code.
• Added the repeating option and balloon help, among many other changes.
• Released only to JAB, the local Mac BBS.
Beta release; version 1.0b1, 25 November 1991: Initial Beta release.
• Released only to JAB and select Beta testers.
• This was released under the name BatchSndPlayer, and was very primitive. SndConverter was based on this, and SndPlayer 1.0b2 was based on SndConverter.
