Copyright Theta Band Software LLC

Version 1.0.

If you write OS/2 applications and want to license the sound system used in this program, please visit the DSMI homepage.

Music on your web pages

The function of the DSMI plug-in is to play music module files. Those files are 32 channel digital music and are of tremendously high quality.

You can find hundreds of music files to play at ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/music/songs.

The music module formats supported by the DSMI plug-in are :

AMF	Digital Sound & Music Interface modules
MOD	Amiga modules
S3M	Scream Tracker 3 modules
MTM	MultiTracker modules
STM	Original Scream Tracker modules
FAR	Farandole composer modules
669	Composer 669 modules
NST	Noise Tracker modules

If you don't know about music modules, read my software homepage and the DSMI homepage.

Installation instructions

This version of NPDSMI should be installed on Navigator or Communicator for OS/2 General Availability. Tested versions include 2.02 and 4.04. We expect that NPDSMI will run unmodified on Communicator 4.61 for OS/2 when the final version is released.

You can check the plug-in page for an update anytime you want by selecting "About Plugins" in Navigator, and then clicking on the Digital Sound & Music Interface for OS/2 plug-in.

Here is what you need to do to use the plug-in :

• Close the browser if it is opened.
• Unzip this package in the PLUGINS subdirectory of your Netscape Navigator browser, or the PROGRAM\PLUGINS subdirectory for Netscape Communicator.
• Start the browser.
• Load the browser with the PLAYER.HTM page. You should hear a tune playing on your soundcard.
• Load the STOP.HTM page and bookmark it so you can later stop playback easily.
• You can also now load this page and hear music !
• You can also go to this page, which has some music files to play !!!

Direct Audio Real Time required

This plug-in requires Direct Audio Real Time - DART.

DART is included in OS/2 Warp version 4.0 as well as Warp Server for E-Business.

For OS/2 Warp version 3, you need to get DART is available as part of Fixpak 26 or later from IBM.

Using the plug-in

Embedding a music file

You can now put the following tag in your page :

<EMBED HIDDEN="true" TYPE="audio/x-mod" SRC="MUSIC.MOD"> </EMBED>

MIME type restrictions :

Here is bad news for those who used Navigator 2.02 for OS/2 and upgraded to Communicator 4.x : Communicator only uses the MIME type transmitted by the web server to determine which plug-in to call. The TYPE argument on the EMBED tag is ignored.

This means that if you have a web page hosted at your ISP, the ISP must make changes to the web server configuration if you want to be able to load embedded music files. The changes involve mapping files by extension to a MIME type. Use the list of MIME types supported by DSMI in "About: Plugins" and email the list to your ISP so that he can change the server configuration file to accomodate DSMI modules. This file is usually called MIME.TYPES .

Stopping a music file

History of changes

• Beta 1 (released at Warpstock 10/26/1998 ) :

  identical to older version in functionality; updated plug-in URL.

• Beta 2 - 10/28/1998 :

  This version of the NPDSMI 2.0 beta supports ZIP compressed modules. You can test this support by going for example to http://www.modarchive.mod . Please note that only the following module formats are supported : AMF, MOD, S3M, NST, 669, MTM, STM. There is no support for IT or XM.

• Beta 3 - 11/05/1998 :

  Fixes a compatibility problem with Bamba under Communicator.

• Beta 4 - 11/20/1998 :

  Fixes a compatibility problem with TCP/IP 4.1 UNZIP.DLL.

• Beta 5 - 4/4/1999 :

  Added environment variables to configure DSMI settings. This lets you work around soundcard driver bugs, such as SB Pro. The variables should be set in CONFIG.SYS and are as follows : - DARTBUFNUM : specifies the number of DART buffers. Should be left at default which is to autodetect. - DARTBUFSIZE : specifies the size of a DART buffer in bytes. Should be left at default which is to autodetect. - AMPLEVEL : from 0 (no amplication) to 4 (high amplification). Default is 1. - FREQUENCY : specifies the sampling rate. Possible values are 11, 22 or 44. The default is the maximum supported by your card. On an SB Pro, the driver improperly reports that 44 kHz is supported, so the music plays at half speed. You can correct this with SET FREQUENCY=22 . - RESOLUTION : specifies whether to use 8 or 16-bit sound. The default is the best resolution supported by your soundcard. Possible values are 8 or 16. - STEREO : specifies whether to use mono or stereo. The default is stereo if your soundcard supports it. Possible values are 0 for mono or 1 for stereo.

• Beta 6 - 4/7/1999 :

  Fixed problem with non-working options in beta 5.

• Final version - 8/31/1999 :

  Recompiled everything with the IBM C/C++ 3.6 compiler, changed version string and updated documentation.

Pre-MMPack changes to NPDSMI :

• The plug-in is now able to detect if you come back on a page which already has music playing, and will not restart the song from the beginning anymore.
• The music files are now loaded in a background thread, so as not to hurt the ultra fast responsiveness of the Communicator / Navigator/2 user interface for more than 10 milliseconds ;-).
• The plug-in checks that the file you pass it are really music files. If they aren't, they will be ignored, and the current music file will continue to play.
• Everything was linked statically in a single plug-in DLL. You no longer need to update your LIBPATH. Also, this makes the plug-in code shrink about half in size.

Disclaimer

There is no warranty of any kind that the DSMI plug-in will perform or not perform any task. Try it at your own risk.

Note that the DSMI plug-in for Netscape Navigator is constantly evolving. The first version of the DSMI plug-in was written in one night.