[Empeg-general] Re: Automatic MP3 identification & how to build it

[Dragi Raos]

> Well, I guess you could say I'm having problems in Windows, but not really problems. As I said, I have no idea what you guys are talking about! I'm not a programmer, and I don't know why heck don't supply the program in a finished form! I just want something to do what it says it will do, and I'm not interested in compiling and all that stuff.

As Tony already answered (is this guy ever away from the keyboard for more than ten minutes :), PMA is supposed to be a fully functional demo GUI application. If you have problems with it, perhaps eTantrum's and our ClemsonJeep could help. I am playing on Linux at the moment, with their 'bare' library, so no help from me, I am affraid.

> Also, you said you needed an "ID3 maintaining utility"? What is that? Does that mean you have to fill in the tags yourself even after they've been identified? Heck, I can do that myself! I know where all my songs are from, I'm just looking for an easy way to fill them out!

Again, PMA is supposed to do that (if I read description correctly). Command-line demo, on the other hand, is written in Unix tradition: it provides what guys@eTantrum do best - it identifies the tune, queries their database and prints results. There are numerous command-line utilities to modify ID3 tags (as are for ripping, for mp3 encoding, for cddb querying, for maintaining jour mp3 database etc). The user is expected to glue them together using shell/Perl/awk/Python/bubblegum/duct-tape/whatever, with or without GUI. If someone comes with particularly nice and usefull leashup and decides to publish it, it becomes more or less a standard. For example, _grip_, one of most popular all-in-one Linux rippers/encoders, is actually just a GUI shell for variety of rippers, encoders and taggers, and user can add their own. That is (original) Unix philosophy: write small tools that do one job, but do it right, and provide an easy way to combine them. However, nowadays Unix is also full of bloatware in Widows style.

Cheers, and keep us informed about advances with PMA!

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green