Read Me & Documentation for CD-Square

Contents
1. What is this?
2. How do I use it?
3. Should I feel guilty using it?
4. How is this made?
5. Known incompabilities and problems.
6. What's the history?
7. Who should not use this software?
8. Contact information!

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1. What is this?

This is CD-Square, one of many CD-player applications for the Macintosh. This is made for fun and should be regarded as so. There are many features not included for simplicity. On the other hand this is freeware, so please give it a try :-)

Here's a little list of cool features in CD-Square

* Like in Apple's Audio CD-player, you can play a track by dragging it onto the icon of the application
* You decide which windows should be displayed (New in version 1.3)
* You can control playback with the numeric keypad (yes, you can use CD-square with no open windows :-)
* It's very (trust me on this) easy to change the buttons. No ResEdit experience required. You can edit the button in your favorite paint or draw program (fx: Canvas, ClarisDraw, ClarisWorks, ColorIt, CorelDraw, FreeHand, Illustrator, MacPaint, MacDraw, Painter, Photoshop), as long as you use Macintosh PICT format.

2. How do I use it?

When you start up the application for the first time, the CD starts playing and you'll see three windows: One with many buttons, one with the current track number, and one with the current time.

The control window:
I've tried to make the buttons look like everything else. However I gladly repeat:

(|) turns the CD-player off. Quits the application.

|> Starts playing if the CD's stopped or if it's paused.

[] Stops playing totally and resets the track list.

|| Toggles the CD between playing and pausing.

<< >> Searches back or forth within the current track.

|<< >>| Takes you to the track before or after the current.

/_\ Stops playing and ejects the CD disc.

The Display window shows you some help and the current track number. You can also show these things by clicking the triangle in the buttom of the control window.

The Time Window shows you the current time and date.

You can do all of these things in the menus.

You can also let CD-Square run in the background. All windows can be closed without quitting the application! So if you want you can display only the time/date window. If you want CD-Square to remember, which windows you have open the next time you start it, make sure there's an [x] by "Remember Which Windows are Open"

If you drag an audio CD file to the application icon, it will launch and start playback with that file. Included is a do-it-yourself kit for making it even more easy, so you only have to double click.

I hope the rest is selfevident...

3. Should I feel guilty using it?

No! Unless you are mentioned in chapter 7, you don't have to pay a single [] krone, [] Dollar, [] Pound, [] Mark or [] Lire for it. This piece of software is totally free!!! Remember that it isn't public domain, so don't distribute modified versions.

One of my main reasons for not wanting money for this is that it took me Sunday afternoon to make and not more time (OK, I have been using much more since the beginning). Besides I don't like to know that other people are feeling guilty using my software. And I wouldn't like to see someone crack my software.

However, if you still feel guilty, there are many ways to relieve your guilt:

* use less Microsoft Software
* donate something to charity
* register someone else's shareware
* send me some money :)
* visit my Anti-Microsoft homepage at: http://www.hum.auc.dk/~trekan/antims/Anti-MS_homepage.html
* Buy some cool CD's for your new CD player.
* do something cool.
* report any errors or incompabilities.
* Buy me a version of Network Multimedia Microbrew (The new version of AppWare, which is the program, I've used to program this utility)

4. How is this made?

I've used these applications:

Apple ResEdit 2.1.3 (Apple sort of Freeware)
For Icons, buttons and the final polishing.

Apple Script editor (Apple sort of Freeware too)
For making the special trick, that enables you to double click an Audio CD file to play it in CD-square.

Novell Appware 1.2 Demo (Limited Demo)
For programming the application. Appware is a very nice visual programming system. Now owned by NetWork Multimedia under the name MicroBrew. I might buy a proper version some day.

Color It(TM) 2.3.5 (A free license which came with the English Magazine MacFormat)
For the graphics in the about window and the included alternative buttons.

Corel WordPerfect 3.5.2 (My own Academic license, I study at Aalborg University)
For writing this readme. The font used in the about box is called Venetian, and it's from the WordPerfect CD. I can fully recommend WordPerfect. And it's very cheap if you study.

All in all this solution is so cheap for me that I wouldn't take money for the result! (I am a nice person, you know ;-)

5. Known incompabilities and problems.

D2 CD - CD-square apparantly doesn't work very well with D2's CD driver. You can use it, but you will get erroneus results. In the next version, I hope to have worked that out. But it may be an incompability between D2 CD and AppWare.

Extensions which change the names of the CD tracks disable CD-square's drag and drop feature, because that feature is coded in a nasty way by me, where it deduces the track number from the name of the track.

There may be some slight violations against the "Apple Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines", but I have intended to keep the number so small as possible as I respect these guidelines.

6. What's the history?

1.0 First public version! However it didn't reach the great public, since there were some problems with the application reaching MacGifts.

1.1 The next version. Following changes have been made from version 1.0:

Bug removals:

* There was too little memory allocated in the first version. That has been changed.
* Fast backward and forward didn't work properly. That's also fixed.
* The help text didn't always display the right things.

Feature additions:

* There's now a Preferences dialog!
* You can now load PICT files with custom buttons using the Preferences dialog
* The controls can now be controlled using the numeric keypad!

1.2 Maybe I should have called this version 1.1.1, but I know that they don't always work good. Has only reached very few people

Bug removals:

* My about box claimed that I have made CD-square using AppMaker. That is corrected now to AppWare.

Feature additions:

A satisfied user (Matt Hanes, thank you!) mailed me and he wondered if I could change CD-square, so it will take care of double clicked Audio CD files. So therefore I thank him and there now is these two features:

* You can drag an audio cd file onto CD-square, and it will start playing it.
* Included now is a do-it-yourself kit, so you can start playback by double-clicking an audio cd file.

1.3 This deserves to be called 1.3, since I've made an interface change (Hey, I try to follow Apple's guidelines).

Bug removals:

* The buttons were scaled up a bit, so it was kind of distorted. They are not scaled now, if you make too big buttons, the will not be scaled.

Feature additions:
* A little triangle widget has been added in the controls window, so you can toggle between the normal state (only buttons) and the larger state (both buttons, button help, and current track indication)
* In the preferences window, you can now tell CD-square to remember which windows are open. I have not yet made CD-square remember positions too, but that may come in a new version. This feature also remembers the state of the controls window

These two feature additions is inspired by another satisfied user (husk navnet) who would like, if the controls and the time indicator were at the same window. And he also wanted to be able to keep the date & time window from being displayed every time.

New alternative buttons:
I've made the button sets larger and streamlined for the new look. And I also made the template larger.

On top of that, I've made two new button sets: The one set is "Danish Design" which tries to resemble a Bang & Olufsen look and the other is "Apple Look alike" which looks a bit like Apple Audio CD Player. I respect both Bang & Olufsen and Apple for their great design and respect for the future, so it's quite natural for me to honour them with these sets.

7. Who should not use this software?

* People from countries boycotted by the UN. Countries like for example Ireland, Cuba and Sweden are not boycotted by the UN and can freely use this program.

* People distributing this software in modified form.

* People working at Microsoft Corporation.

* Anyone who hasn't got a CD-ROM drive.

* Anyone without a Macintosh or a compatible.

8. Contact information

If you redistribute this application on a CD-ROM, diskette, on the Internet or on a BBS, remember to distribute the complete and unmodified package. I would be glad to be informed, if you do these things, so I can know and get a better selfconsciousness! A free CD-ROM or diskette would be fine.

I can be contacted in these ways:

Mailing address:
Troels Eklund Andersen
Ledvogtervej 1, Veddum
DK-9560 Hadsund
Denmark

Internet e-mail:
trekan@hum.auc.dk
trekan@hotmail.com (beware, I check this only once in a while....)

Original file name: ReadMe.txt - converted on Tuesday, 23 November 1999, 18:22