xmms-cueinfo - Overview
xmms-cueinfo is a plugin for XMMS that adds support for reading cue files. Cue files describe what tracks a single audio file contains, including performer and title information. This makes it possible to rip a full CD into a single audio file. (The reason people do this is because of the audible gaps that occur when the software switches between two files. However, these gaps are generally shorter in unix-based operating systems than in Windows due to the simpler file I/O subsystem. There are also no-gap plugins for many players now, so there aren't really any good reasons for ripping CDs like this nowadays.) xmms-cueinfo also makes it easy to seek to each track mentioned in the cue file.
xmms-cueinfo is written in C by Oskar Liljeblad (oskar@osk.mine.nu) and is free software (GNU General Public License).
License
xmms-cueinfo is copyright (C) 2003 Oskar Liljeblad
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Requirements
xmms-cueinfo requires XMMS version 0.9.5 or later. I have only tested it with tested it with 1.2.7, but it should work with other versions as well.
Installation
Run `./configure' and then `make install'. See `INSTALL' for the usual autoconf/automake installation details.
Usage
Just enable the `Cue Info' general plugin in the `Effect/General Plugins' tab in the XMMS preferences. Now, whenever you play a song that has an associated cue file (that is, a file with the same name but with a .cue extension instead), that cue file will be loaded and a window will pop up showing available tracks.
If a window does not appear, it means that the cue file did not exist or could not be loaded, or could not be parsed properly.
If you have closed the `XMMS Cue Info' window and want it to appear again, either switch to another song and back again, or disable then enable the `Cue Info' plugin from the XMMS preferences.
Homepage
The latest version of xmms-cueinfo can be downloaded from
http://www.student.lu.se/~nbi98oli/
Feedback
The author of atool and this document, Oskar Liljeblad, can be reached via email address
Please send bug reports, suggestions, ideas or comments in general to me.
Known bugs
The function xmms_remote_jump_to_time in XMMS is a little inaccurate - XMMS may jump to up to approximately 1000 ms earlier than specified. Because we always jump to the beginning of a track, it is necessary to add 1000 ms to its start time so that we won't jump to the end of the previous track instead.
Due to XMMS' limited API the only way to detect song and position change is to poll position every some milliseconds. This of course means that xmms-cueinfo consumes more CPU time than it would if XMMS notified about changes instead.
Possible things to do
do something about extensions longer than three chars, like .mpeg3?
Make about dialog
Remember window position
Some kind of graphical indication where in the song we are
Pop-down lists of tracks, or other list
Skins and xmms visual integration
Play cue files from xmms, and have it load the mp3 instead
Play cue files from xmms, and integrate fully with playlist
Similar projects
XMMS mp3cue - http://brianvictor.tripod.com/mp3cue.htm
This is a more advanced cue info plugin with ability to create .cue files, as well as storing the .cue file itself within an ID3v2 tag. Unfortunately the source is not publicly available.
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