AmigaOS Manual: Workbench Other Programs

This chapter describes the programs found in the Tools and Utilities drawers.

Tools Drawer

The Tools drawer window, illustrated in Figure 10-1, contains numerous utility programs that, for example, expand your printing options, prepare memory cards for use, define new keys, and create new icons.

Tools Window

The following programs are found in the Tools drawer:

Calculator	A standard, four-function calculator.
CMD	Allows you to redirect printer output to a file.
GraphicDump	Allows you to print screen images.
IconEdit	Allows you to change and create icons.
InitPrinter	Initializes your printer.
KeyShow	Displays the current keyboard layout.
Lacer	Turns video interlace on and off.
MEmacs	A text editor, explained in the AmigaDOS User's Guide.
Mounter	An interactive partition mount tool.
PlayCD	User interface for the audio CD playback functionality
PrepCard	Prepares PCMCIA memory cards for use on systems with a PCMCIA slot.
PrintFiles	Sends files to the printer.
ShowConfig	Shows configuration information.
Commodities	A drawer containing programs that monitor your keyboard and mouse input.

HDBackup and HDToolbox are also included in the Tools drawer on hard disk systems only. For information on these programs, see the Amiga Hard Drive User's Guide .

PlayCD

PlayCD acts as a user interface for the audio CD playback functionality offered by a CD-ROM drive. The CD-ROM drive in question must comply to the SCSI-2 standard and thus support at least a subset of the audio control commands defined for CD-ROM drives.

Starting the program

When the program is launched, it will attempt to configure itself. This involves figuring out which device driver and which device unit to use for audio playback. This information is usually stored in the program's icon, but it can also provided on the command line. The names of the command line options and the tool types are the same. The following options are supported:

DOSDEV

If there already is a filing system mounted on the CD-ROM drive to use for audio playback, the easiest way to tell PlayCD which device it should use is to provide that filing system's name. PlayCD will try to figure out which device and unit that filing system is bound to and use the resulting information.

Example:

PlayCD CD0:
PlayCD dosdev CD2:

Note
That this type of configuration may not work with all CD-ROM filing systems.

DEVICE

Use this option to provide the name of the device driver the CD-ROM drive to use for playback responds to.

Example:

PlayCD device=scsi.device

Default for this option is "scsi.device" .

UNIT

This option works in conjunction with the "DEVICE" parameter. Both the device name and the unit number specified define the interface the PlayCD program should use to address the CD-ROM drive.

Example:

PlayCD unit=5

Default for this option is "2".

SKIP

The PlayCD user interface sports a slider which controls and displays the current play index. Attached to this slider are two buttons which perform fast forward" and rewind" functionality. Pressign any of these two buttons will cause playback to skip a few seconds. The SKIP" option is for configuring the number of seconds to skip.

Example:

PlayCD skip=2

Default for this option is 1", i.e. clicking on the buttons will skip one second each.

PEEKTIME

PlayCD queries the CD-ROM drive in regular intervals to find out whether the CD was changed or how far playback has progressed. The length of these intervals is configured with the PEEKTIME" option. The peek time is specified in microseconds, i.e. one millionth part of a second.

Example:

PlayCD peektime=500000

Default for this option is 200000", i.e. one fifth of a second.

PUBSCREEN

PlayCD can be made to open its display on a named public screen. If the named screen does not exist, it will fall back to opening its display on the default public screen, such as the Workbench screen.

Example:

PlayCD pubscreen=my.public.screen

There is no default for this option. Default behaviour for PlayCD is to open its display on the default public screen which in most cases will be the Workbench screen.

BUFMEMTYPE

PlayCD depends upon the controller hardware the CD-ROM drive is attached to to deliver its commands properly. This may sometimes require that the command data structures are passed in a particular type of memory which the controller hardware has easy access to. In most cases you will not need to change this option, but if the CD-ROM drive is correctly configured, does support the SCSI-2 command set and still does not react to PlayCD`s commands, then it might be necessary to specify a different buffer memory type.

Example:

PlayCD bufmemtype=2
PlayCD bufmemtype=512

Default for this option is 0", which specifies no particular type of memory to use for interacting with the controller hardware.

The user interface

If properly configured, PlayCD will open a window which contains the following controls (left to right):

Track display	Here you will find information about the current audio track and the playback status. The first line displays the track information, the second line indicates how much time has passed with regard to length of the current track and the entire CD.
Track position (below the track display)	This slider displays the current track position. It can also be used to change the current track position.	[Shift]+[Cursor left] and [Shift]+[Cursor right] keys
Track selection	This is a set of 32 buttons, each one corresponding to one of the tracks of the audio CD. Click a button to make the corresponding audio track the current track. If playback is currently in progress, playback will proceed with the selected track.	Any number entered, e.g. entering the two digits 1 and 2 in quick succession will pick track 12.
Volume	This is a vertical slider whose current setting corresponds to the sound playback volume. At the top position, playback volume is loudest.	+ and - keys
Eject (below the Track position slider)	Press this button to eject/load the CD in the drive. For technical reasons, you may need to press this button more than once to load a CD.	[F1] and [Backspace] keys
Stop	Press this button to stop playback.	[F2] and [Cursor up] keys.
Pause	Press this button to suspend/resume playback.	[F3] and [Space] keys
Previous track	Press this button to skip back to the beginning of the previous track.	[F4] and [Cursor left] keys
Play	Press this button to begin playback.	[F5] and [Cursor down] keys
Next track	Press this button to skip forward to the beginning of the next track.	[F6] and [Cursor right] keys
Shuffle	Press this button to set up a play list which contains all CD titles in random order. Playback will step through this list, playing each title once. To return to the regular play list which plays each title in the order the tracks were recorded in, press the Stop" button.	[F7] key
Playback mode	This button selects a playback mode; it can be one of the following: Continue This is the default playback mode. If you pick a track to play, it will be played along with all tracks to follow it until the last track on the CD is played. Clicking one of the track buttons in the track selection table will make the respective track the current track". Program In this mode every track number entered or clicked on will cause a new entry to be added to the play list. To play back the list, click the Play" button. Track In this mode playback will be restricted to the currently selected track. This means, for example, that if a track has been played to the end, playback will stop instead of proceeding to the next track. [F8] key Repeat This switch controls whether playback will stop when the end of the play list has been reached or whether playback will restart with the first list entry. [F9] key
Message list (below the Eject button)	This is where helpful progress reports and error messages are displayed. For example, if you picked a track by entering its number, you will see a notice confirming your input.

Stopping the program

Once the PlayCD program is running, you can stop it by clicking on the window close gadget or by one of the keyboard equivalents [Esc] or [Ctrl]+\.