I would like to comment on Chris Wenham's "MOD Players for OS/2" article appearing on the December issue of OS/2 e-Zine!. The following contents may be a little bit too technical for average readers.
After reading the article, I obtained the "Astronaut's Requiem" module which Chris used to test the various module players. I then played it with Cubic Player V1.6 with track tracing enabled. I also played the same file with Muse/2, which is an OS/2 module player that perhaps Chris had not noticed that it existed. It can be found on Hobbes.
When the playing hits the trouble spot, I checked the tracings given by Cubic Player, and discovered that U4ia (the mod's author) used a "pattern loop" instruction at several places of the mod to repeat a portion of the pattern, at one occasion it repeats three times, and at the others the repetition is once, perhaps to save space and time. With this knowledge under by belt, I played the module again and checked its playback. Both players repeated the clip the correct number of times, then moved on, while UltiMod 1.5 B15 misunderstood other instructions dealing with tempo settings, and slowed the piece to a crawl.
I believe that this looping instruction is the quirk Chris referred to as "[the] technique that worked fine on his Tracker (the program that composes the files) but not so well on players."
Finally, Chris' definition of passing the "Astronaut's Requiem" test is somewhat vague. Does a player which fails that test loops at the trouble spot forever?
Just want to say thanks for the excellent reviews of CD & Mod players. These kinds of things don't get noticed easily out there and the review put them all together in one place.
I'm looking forward to the January release!
Where was Muse2 1.31 in the [MOD player review]?
I think you've GREATLY overlooked Ultimod PM's great WPS integration:
- full drag and drop for both file list and single or multiple modules
- association aware, it loads module in the currently opened Ultimod
Also, Ultimod 1.5 now comes with both DART and GUS version in one player.
After that, you've also greatly overlooked Gravis Ultrasound capabilities. It uses less than 1% of a Pentium CPU time for a 32 channel MOD, but it also sounds better than any sound mixing player (ie: DART, OS/2 speaking).
"Astronauts Requiem" passed with "flying colors" here also, but with Ultimod 1.5, where did you get your Ultimod 1.5? And it's not enough to compare players with a simple MOD file...
I bought my PC in April 1995. At the time, my university software store was selling the Warp 3.0 "Student Pak" for $40. I had already shelled out three grand so I thought what the hell and got myself a copy. The installation of Warp taught me everything I know about PCs. It was not an easy task getting the drivers, but after about two weeks my Warp system was running great.
Then came a number of varsity courses that required me to use Windows software. My 8 meg machine struggled with more than a cople of apps and was worse with WinOS/2. I kept on trying until that Christmas. I got Win95 as a present. I succumbed to the tempation and installed it. It ran great, but there was little room left on my 540 meg hard drive. So out went OS/2.
Jump ahead to yesterday. My PC is a transformed beast, with 32Meg of RAM and over a gig of hard drive space on two disks. It dual boots between Win95 and Linux, but some thing was missing.
I've been a regular reader of OS/2 e-Zine! and after looking at some of my back copies I decided to install Warp again. Why? Because I can.
This time installation is a cinch. There are an abundance of drivers on the net not to mention a huge number of websites devoted to OS/2. I checked out Hobbes and there are many more applications than April last year. I can even use Netscape in a native OS/2 session.
John C. Dvorak was right when he said Warp was deep rich and powerful. And it ain't dead. Maybe I'll save up for Merlin.
There is another tool which performs the same task as these tools. The product is Zip Chunker & its counter part Zip Chunker Pro from Jibben Software. Check 'em out at http://www.usinternet.com/jsw/jswutils.htm.
There are DOS, Windows, and OS/2 versions of each and like Slice/2 & Splice/2 have been around for many years.
I enjoy reading your magazine when I get the chance to browse the 'net and got quite a chuckle at reading the article on Slice/2 and Splice/2.
After reading it I remembered that it was my own utility! I had forgotten about it for a long time. It took me several days to find the source code since it was one of my first OS/2 programs written and compiled with Microsoft (GADS!) C 6.0 compiler.
Please let your readers know that I hearby announce that ver. 1.00 of Splice/2 and Slice/2 is FREE. I will NOT charge for it.
I am considering doing a 32bit update and possibly a PM version (in fact there was a PM version but it was not very well done) which will be Shareware.
Thanks for the write up!
I know you've probably received tons of messages like this but I thought you wouldn't mind one more.
At work, I use Windows 3.1 on a network and at home, I have a PC with Win 95 and one with OS/2 Warp Connect. Though I guess I'm in the minority, I prefer OS/2, because, among other reasons, it's an alternative to MS Windows!
I honestly hope that IBM (and your publication) continue to support OS/2 as there are undoubtedly many, like me, throughout the world that really like the system.
I would like to know if there is any campaign that you are aware of which involves OS/2 users sending e-mail to IBM urging the powers that be to push OS/2.
Hello! I'm probably not sending this to the right place, but I just wanted to let you know about the death of "Inside OS/2", the newsletter published by the Cobb Group (a Ziff-Davis division). I had subscribed to this monthly newsletter of "tips & techniques for OS/2" for the past couple of years. With the January 1997 issue came a notice that it would be my last, and that the remainder of my subscription would be filled with my choice of "Inside the Internet" or several other "Inside..." newsletters dealing with Windows, DOS or Microsoft programs.
This, following on the heels of the death of "OS/2 Magazine", really ticks me off; how much did Gates pay to buy Ziff-Davis, anyway?
Thank you for OS/2 e-Zine!. This e-zine and the new Stardock newsletter will be my main sources for OS/2-related news now. I wouldn't be very surprised to find you already knew about "Inside OS/2" (I'm generally the last grape on the vine), but in case you didn't & want more info, the number for their Customer Relations dept. is 800-223-8720.
==PLEASE keep publishing, even if you must eventually charge for subscriptions!==
Ominor is king. We, the OS/2 user community are not worthy of his attention.
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