Xref:	news2.mv.net comp.os.msdos.djgpp:8420
From:	pavlichum AT topaz DOT cqu DOT edu DOT au (Thunder Child)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	MIDAS : Porting to DJGPP - news+info
Date:	9 Sep 96 01:57:03 +1000
Organization:	Central Queensland University, Australia
Lines:	109
Message-ID:	<1996Sep9.015703@topaz>
NNTP-Posting-Host:	topaz.cqu.edu.au
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

  This is a reply I recieved from one of the authors of the MIDAS sound
system on the subject of porting it to DJGPP:

>From:	IN%"pekangas AT sci DOT fi"  "Petteri Kangaslampi"  7-SEP-1996 05:15:45.65
>To:	IN%"pavlichum AT topaz DOT cqu DOT edu DOT au"
>CC:	
>Subj:	RE: Any plans for supporting DJGPP?
>
>At 19:41 05-09-96 +1100, you wrote:
>>I asked this quite some time ago and was told that it is not planned,
>>so when mds05rc1 was released I asked if anyone was interested in
>>porting it (in the DJGPP newsgroup).  DJ Delorie (the author of DJGPP)
>>suggested I ask you.  (He wasn't aware that I'd already done this months
>>ago).  At this point in time is supporting DJGPP an option?  If it is
>>not would you consider helping someone else port it?  Thankyou for you
>>time.
>
>Unfortunately I don't at the moment have time to work on a DJGPP port. MIDAS
>already supports GCC under Linux, but the main problem is the sound card
>hardware handling code. If someone else is interested in working on this, I
>could naturally offer at least some support. 
>
>We did manage to use TASM compiled assembler code with the Linux version
>though, and I think the assembler code for the Sound Devices could be used
>with DJGPP similarily - we used the Watcom disassembler to convert the
>compiled .obj:s to AT&T syntax assembler, and passed it through to a small
>sed script. I assume DJGPP can handle the same assembler syntax as GCC in Linux?
>
>Other possible problems are the DMA handling code, plus anything that is
>using interrupts. I don't know very much about the DJGPP extender though.
>The rest of the code should compile OK without modifications. Also, we are
>planning to convert even more of the assembler code to C in the future, and
>that should make future ports easied.
>
>
>>ps.  Is it OK if I post your reply to the DJGPP newsgroup?
>
>OK, I don't have a problem with that.
>
>
>Petteri

  Well, there's the word from one of the authors.  Even though I'm definately
no low level source hacker I'd try myself (for the sake of trying, not for any
hope of succeeding:) except I don't have the Watcom disassembler.

  If anyone has the disassembler/is wishing to port MIDAS/is generally
interested in what MIDAS is...  point your browsers at this URL :
http://kalahari.ton.tut.fi/s2/midas.html

The latest version can be found at :
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/incoming/code/mds05rc1.zip

  There are a number of 3rd party productions using MIDAS floating around
on the net...  quite impressive too, but I've seen nothing interactive.
I can't remember where any of these are but I can search around if anyone
is interested.

  Anyway...  Here is brief list of features I just grabbed from the web site:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supports MS-DOS, Windows NT and 95 and Linux. In MS-DOS, MIDAS works with
32-bit
Watcom C/C++, under DOS/4GW, and in Windows with any programming language
capable of
using DLLs. Under Linux we support GNU C/C++. 

Under MS-DOS, MIDAS Supports the following sound cards: 
   Creative Labs Sound Blaster series (1.0 through SB 16 and AWE32) 
   Gravis UltraSound (regular, MAX, and Plug and Play, with native Interwave
support) 
   Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum series (PAS, PAS+ and PAS16) 
   Microsoft Windows Sound System and compatible cards using the Crystal/Analog
CODEC 

Adding support for new sound cards is straightforward, provided that the
necessary low-level
programming information and an example card for testing are available. 

Supported music formats are: 
   FastTracker 2 modules (.XM) with up to 32 channels 
   Scream Tracker 3 modules (.S3M) with up to 32 channels 
   Basic Protracker modules (.MOD) with 4 channels, also extended PT-like
formats with up to 32
channels are supported. 

In addition to music, you can also play sound effects on an unlimited number of
channels, plus an
unlimited number of digital audio streams. MIDAS fully supports 8-bit stereo
and mono, and 16-bit
stereo and mono samples in any combinations. You can, for example, play a
16-bit stereo music
stream on the background, combined with a 8-bit mono speech stream and several
sound effects. 

With MIDAS Sound System it is also possible to play several songs
simultaneously, so there is no
need to limit sound effects to plain samples. Effects can be composed as parts
of modules to
eliminate the need for very long samples and get finer control over the sound
output. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  It's also mentioned elsewhere that there is an interface for synching screen
events with music etc...  (I think it was in the doc inside package itself(?)).

-Mark

ps.  Sorry for the length of this post.

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