wmscope release 3 Copyright (C) 1999 John Meacham http://synergy.foo.net/~john/
wmscope is liscenced under the GNU Public Licsence version 2 see file COPYING for details.
this is a simple dockapp which will read incoming sound data (usually from a line-in, microphone, or CD player) and display the raw data graphically. It also has a 'standby' nifty sie wave interference pattern to stare at if you choose. to my knowledge it has been tested on:
Linux
*BSD
Solaris
although it should work on any POSIX OS, to read the sound data your OS must support either an OSS or Solaris style driver. (many do)
- Use
wmscope by default is standalone, to make it dock under WindowMaker use the -w option. once started the only interaction possible is to click on it which will cause it to open and close the sound device, if nothing seems to happen make sure you look at the standard error too see if it is printing an error message.
- Installation
edit the Makefile as appropriate for your system. make su make install
mini-FAQ:
- how do i get a list of options?
wmscope -h
- how do i dock under WindowMaker?
use the -w option
- the sine waves keep going when i click on it!
it cant open the sound card, look on console output (stderr)
- the display is just a flat line (no audio signal.)
your mixer is probably set wrong. open your favorite mixer and make sure it is set to listen to the cd or line in properly and that the input gain is set high enough.
- signal is too strong.
see above.
- why wont it work with my mp3 player?
due to limitations in the KERNEL driver wmscope may only read from external input such as a cd player, it is rumored it can be hacked to work with esound but i am unaware of how to do it off the top of my head. it probably involves the '-c' option.
- how do i get it to compile under solaris?
you need the Xpm libraries, they may be obtained at www.sunfreeware.com, also the free gcc compiler may also be gotten there. then just make sure SOUND_SOLARIS is configured in the Makefile and your set.
- are there binaries?
check my web site http://synergy.foo.net/~john/ there may or may not be some there depending on my mood.
you can also use the '-a' switch with a number to amplify or diminish the signal before it is displayed although this may cause clipping of the sound data, if at all possible use a mixer.
if the data seems screwey then under linux you might want to try fooling with the FMT and SPEED ioctls, the values were chosen empirically and may not be correct for your setup. under solaris you may modify the SAMPLING_RATE also every now and again the gain is messed up for an unknown reason, if you click a few times it should clear it up.
hope you enjoy!
John
john@foo.net