Chip 2002 June/06_02.iso/bonus/winamp3/wa3install_beta3.exe/readme.txt

Text File | 2002-02-14 | 16.0 KB | 417 lines

Winamp3 is Copyright 1999-2001 Nullsoft, Inc.
Winamp3 is a trademark of Nullsoft, Inc.

Table of Contents:
  About Winamp3
  Some features to try out
  How to start Winamp3
  Some known issues
  What's new (version history)


    About Winamp3

  What is Winamp3? Why Winamp3? Winamp3 is more than an excuse to have "mp3"
built right into our product name. Winamp3 is our attempt to create a
brand new methodology of complete customizability of the media playback
experience via a system of component programming (which adds new functionality
to the program) and a brand-new skinning system (to present the features of
the program to you.) Collectively, this new technology platform is called
Wasabi, or the Wasabi Coding Platform.

Our component system gives developers unprecedented access to the program by
encouraging them to build directly upon our coding platform (named Wasabi) and
add brand-new functionality to the entire system. We provide an SDK (downloaded
separately) packed with working C++ code taken directly from our own components
and Winamp3 itself so developers can immediately start creating great new
components on top of our code.

  New functionality is packaged in the form of "components". They are similar
in idea to general-purpose plugins, except Wasabi components can actually
leverage each others' features instead of only using the main Winamp services.
Components can add a new window into the system, or just provide a new type
of service to the system (like decoding a different type of media file, or
displaying a brand-new type of visualization). Winamp3 comes packaged with
some standard components, such as the playlist editor and skin switcher.

  Also, we have completely revamped the skinning system. In fact, we have
revamped the entire idea of a skinning system. Winamp3 goes way beyond the
idea of skins that are merely free-form. Our skins are both free-form
and fully scriptable. Skinners (and now, scripters) can invoke nearly any
UI behavior they desire in their skin, from changing a bitmap or vis mode
to dynamically blending and rendering brand new interfaces on the fly.

  Another important reason for Winamp3 is portability. Wasabi currently runs on
the win32 platform (Win95/98/NT/ME/2k/XP/TC). We are progressing nicely on a
Linux version as well, and we have plans for more operating
systems/environments to receive support in the future. This means that
components built on the Wasabi Coding Platform will be easily recompilable for
other OSes and architectures, and skins won't need to be modified at all to
be totally portable.



    Some features to try out:

- Grab the little resizer control in the lower right and stretch your Winamp3!

- Click the eject button to pick some music files on your hard drive and
  play them.

- Turn on the crossfader. (The button just to the right of the eject
  button).

- Click on the little Winamp logo (the flashing lightning bolt icon in the
  lower right of the main player piece) to bring up the Thinger, if it isn't
  already displaying. The Thinger allows you to open and close component
  windows (like the playlist editor, or the skin switcher, or other components
  you might install) and otherwise interact with the components you have
  installed.

- If you are connected to the Internet, open the Shoutcast Server List in the
  Thinger and double-click on a station list (once the list displays) to listen
  to that station.

- The media library, availble both through the Thinger and through the "ML"
  button, can sort and display your music collection if it has been tagged
  with ID3 information. At first, your database of music is empty. It grows
  as you add new files to your playlist or when you add more files to it via
  the "add music to db" button in the lower left. It takes a little while
  to read all the info from the files after you add them, but once it's done
  you can try clicking on the available queries to see what it's found.
  Once you find some music, you can drag and drop it into the playlist editor.
  You can also drag-and-drop files from Windows Explorer windows directly
  onto the playlist editor or the main player piece.

- Right clicking on the player piece will bring up a menu with some more
  options.

- All windows naturally "dock" to each other when they get near. You can undock
  any docked window (including the main player) by holding down either SHIFT
  key while dragging it.

- If you hold down the CONTROL and ALT keys while moving a window, every
  window will move along with it.

- There's lots more, so explore!


    How to start Winamp3:
    (as originally written for the internal alphas)
    (on a French keyboard)
    (by a drunken Brennan)
    (with my left pinky)
    (blindfolded)

Start Winamp3 via whatever method you prefer. That would mean either clicking
the quickstart icon, the desktop icon, or by projecting your awesome mutant
powers onto a nearby human and exploding their brain in such a way as to cause
variations in the sunspot cycle which causes in turn a freakish burst of
neutrinos to blast forth from the sun's molten innards (the advanced student can
use a nearby star and a buttload of patience) flipping a bit in your computers
Instruction Pointer (usually referred to as IP except on the SPARC platform
which uses the notation PC, for Program Counter) causing it to jump to the
part of Windows that is secretly programmed in at the last second that causes
it to feel remorse for sucking so damned bad and always crashing and deleting
all your work right when you were JUST ABOUT to hit Save, no really you were,
and while wallowing in this black pit of despair and self-loathing it hits it,
hey, I know what would make the world a better place, if I was running
Winamp 3.0, and it does.


        Notes

- About the HTTP reader:
  The proxy string can be either: "user:password@host:port", "user@host:port" or "host:port"
  If "port" is not specified, 80 is assumed.

- About the video support:
  When in fullscreen, you can use any Winamp3 key to control the playback and
  also use the mouse wheel to control volume.
  Doubleclick on the fullscreen window or press "ESC" to go back to normal mode.

- About CD playback:
  The CD reader will first try to digitally extract the tracks, so it can
  provide you with gapless and crossfadable output along with visualisation.
  The digital extraction relies on an ASPI manager being installed on your
  computer. It'll also try to use the internal ASPI NT manager, but it might
  not work on all CD drives. If digital extraction doesn't work properly, try
  installing an ASPI manager. Check out the following page for detailed
  instructions:

   http://www.windac.de/eng/sup02.shtml

  If ASPI is not found, the WA3 CD playback component will then fallback
  into a MCI type CD playback (like Winamp 2 does).


    Some known issues

- Configuration is very basic right now, but it's usable. In a few versions
  we hope to have fully skinnable config in a releasable state.

- if no file is valid in a playlist, hitting play enters an endless loop


Found one we missed? Go to http://bugzilla.nullsoft.com:3430/ and help us
out by reporting it. Or email to [e-mail]. Or let us know your thoughts
in our forums at http://forums.winamp.com/



Sincerely,

Brennan Underwood
Francis Gastellu
Christophe Thibault
Justin Frankel
Steve Gedikian
Mig Gerard

and the whole Nullsoft team^H^H^H^Hsemi-digested hunks of meat



    What's new:
3.0 Beta 3 days (02/08/02) build #466
- video playback! (still experimental)
- ogg vorbis, MIDI and MOD support!
- popup menus work better
- faster startup
- more config options
- color controls faster and better (any skin can now have color themes)
- all known skin reload issues resolved
- better desktopalpha support
- ns_database moved into component
- http proxy support
- xml errors handled better
- adding files to library and loading playlists MUCH faster now
- component code can now hook skin functions (see SDK for examples)
- many many bugs fixed, not so many added this time :)
- and lots more, so explore!


3.0 Beta 2.5 weirzbowski (12/18/01) build #455
- mostly bugfixes, and lots of em
- playlists:
    - load somewhat faster
    - directory entries loaded only when needed
    - number column auto-resizes
    - editor accepts dropped playlists
- popup menus don't stack up against the right side of the screen
- minibrowser works again (woo?)
- skin reloading crash fixed
- skin pieces scale amount linked among layouts
- internal NT aspi manager support in CDDA


3.0 Beta 2 cold (11/28/01) build #454
- lots of bugfixes!
- media playback:
    - more accurate timekeeping
    - CD audio playback! Uses digital extraction of audio so it works
      with the crossfader and eq! Falls back to normal redbook audio
      playback if ASPI layer not installed, see above
    - long playback time crash bug fixed
- skinning improvements:
    - superslow loading bug fixed
    - zipped skin loading bug fixed
    - per-pixel alpha blending against the desktop! (in win2k/xp only)
    - subtractable region objects (good for rounded corners etc.)
    - more objects can be made ghosted
    - generic frame support, skin one layout and wrap it around anything
    - antialiased font support
    - upside-down fonts bug fixed
    - vertical sliders fixed
- playlist editor:
    - windowshade mode
    - more robust m3u loading
- config!
    - this is the very basic version so you can play. by beta3 we should
      have more fully skinnable config screens


3.0 Beta 1 love (10/09/01) (developer's) build #448
- mostly finalized all interfaces so developers can get busy
- config file in sexy XML now
- crossfader switchable again
- crossfade on next/previous works
- playlist editor:
    - faster, better, more stable
    - shuffle on next now default behavior
    - sorting by specific criteria, more general sorting to come later
    - .pls loading
    - no more "working playlist", now whatever playlist is showing is the
      playlist being edited, always
    - prioritizes ID3 reading for items you're looking at
    - sexy skinned drop indicator
    - playlist saving works again
    - url selector remembers recent entries
- skinning:
    - groups work better
    - many components now scalable (not working 100% yet)
    - skins start out centered on screen on first load
    - gamma groups! tintastic!
- memory usage reduced
- finally, some better buttons than the ones I made in MS Paint on my laptop
  with a touchpad (thanks Steve!)
- many many bugfixes, including the NT4 startup crash
- even better SDK
- lots more!


3.0 Alpha L8r (08/24/01) build #441
- apparently we still have jobs (some of us)
- so we fix the bugs
- fixed assert on playlist editor's "select dups" and "delete dups" options
- fixed the minimize bug
- added "open location" and "open dir" options
- re-enabled volume & eq settings saving (it's not a bug if it's just
  commented out, right?)
- p.s. to use Mozilla you also have to set
  "Use Mozilla instead of IE for minibrowser=1" in studio.xnf


3.0 Alpha L8 (08/22/01) build #440
- much faster startup time
- systray ASSERT should really really be fixed now
- 8-bit UTF-8 playlist names work, 16-bit ones still don't
- lots more text now translated through locales system
- improved component painting (more efficient, less wrong)
- faster skin loading (caches unpacked skins into temp directory)
- faster playlist loading
- can select mozilla to be used in the minibrowser
  -> go to the mozilla folder and type "regsvr32 mozctlx.dll"
- ID3 tags read on a timer
- many and vast improvements to the UI subsystem
- hokey transparent context menus (under win2k, just 'cause they look cute)
- bugs fixed, added


3.0 Alpha 667 (06/28/01)
- autodetects MMX, no need for separate noMMX version any more
- immediate music stop on shutdown
- fixed systray ASSERT on WINE & litestep
- mouse wheel scrolling for list windows
- scripting:
    - engine speedups
    - mc.exe supports #include, #define, #undef, #ifdef, etc.
- skinning:
    - fx objects (like dmove) work on subbitmaps
    - faster blitting
    - more options for various GUI objects
    - F5 reloads current skin
    - BMP files work again (bleh... use PNG)
- basic translation of strings, not everything is translated yet :)
- keyboard accelerator keys
- text scale up/down (use control-minus and control+equals)
- truetype font loading from skins works again (no need to install into OS)
- skin colors overriding in skins should work again
- new script included: MiniKick
- skin switcher! with preliminary wa2 skin loading support (not finished)
- skin version # checking
- select duplicates command in playlist editor
- memory usage cut down in general
- config screen almost ready (not in this alpha, tho :)
- lots and lots of other internals stuff you won't see until the SDK :)


3.0 Alpha 666 (05/21/01) build #429
- better http streaming
- more responsive interface
- better seeking
- image loading done by components
- faster startup
- preliminary support for winamp 2.x visualizations
- less memory usage
- better crossfading (no more clicks we hope)
- Shuffle on next added, edit your .xnf file to turn it on
- skin love:
  - faster skin switching/loading
  - faster gamma tweaking
  - GDI resource usage cut way down
  - faster MMX optimized blitting
  - bilinear filtering for stretched skin pieces
  - snap points for funky-shaped skin piece love
- more scripting amazingness:
  - guru meditations slightly more helpful
  - faster execution
  - general purpose scripts
  - script manager to add/remove general purpose scripts
- basic field editing in dbexplorer, which will probably go into the media lib
- sclist for shoutcast browsing pleasure
- bugs fixed, added


3.0 Alpha 6 e (4/20/01) build #420
- takes even less memory, smaller .exe, more stable (as usual ;)
- playlist editor ASSERT bug smushed
- working playlist thingy
- fixed bug where files dropped on bottom of playlist showed up on top
- faster window painting and resizing and shit
- new avs with overlay support!
- skinning:
  - skin xml can include other skins' xml files for tinyness
  - skin pieces can hold multiple components
  - all-in-one skin ("Compact") included, takes up only about 5k
  - added support for horizontal animations
- accurate animatedrects are back :)
- eq latency cut to 2 seconds instead of 7
- eq has sexy curves again!
- skin scripts can have user functions and user classes
- automatically updated build numbers to aid conspiracy theorists
- http status messages added
- more... much more... can't remember


3.0 Alpha 5 UX (03/16/01)
- working eq?!
- even smaller default skin
- fixed-width bitmap fonts
- logical font names for various text objects, yay for skinners
- playlists load now
- open/save file dialogs remember last dir opened from/saved to
- less AVS bugs
- even better skin switching
- did someone say scaling? =)


3.0 Alpha 4 n1c8 (02/13/01)
- speed and size optimizations (about 18k cut from exe+dll)
- far more functional playlist editor
  - remembers last playlist open & vertical scroll position
- skins can now overlay default.wal, so you don't have to include one of every
  single bitmap from it
- core playback bugs fixed
- min/max sizing for components implemented
- skin piece scaling!
- better skin switching
- component status bar now skinnable
- http streaming leaks less memory
- plus lots of little bugfixes & tweaks


3.0 Alpha 3.00ZX (02/01/01):
- uses WAY less cpu when playing files.
- packaged with latest SuperPimp.
- volume is now saved.
- optimized visual animations (sound analyzer, etc...)
- "Report bugs" option in system menu
- gamma component! (warning: does not actually tweak gamma)
- LOTS of bugfixes including:
  - skin switching 99% works!
  - crossfading fixed and can now crossfades mono streams
  - avs fixes
  - song name display fixed
  - audio playback system fixed
  - playlist editor time display fixed
  - a lot more :) Check our bugzilla for more


3.0 Alpha 2 turbo (01/27/01):
- Fixed lots of bitmaps, scroll bars. Mostly cosmetic stuff.


3.0 Alpha 1 turbo (01/27/01):
- Everything. :)