MP3 Explorer 2.2

Copyright (c) 1998-1999 Pierre LEVY
All rights reserved.


last updated 02/14/1999

Table of contents

1.
Licensing
2.
Registration
3.
Change log (updated)
4.
Known problems or limitations
5.
Updates
6.
FAQ
7.
Link to MP3 Explorer homepage


1. Licensing

This software has been deposed and is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties.

MP3 Explorer is a shareware :

You are hereby licensed to make as many copies of this software as you wish ; give exact copies of the original shareware version to anyone; and distribute the software in its unmodified form via electronic means. There is no charge for any of the above.

This software may be used for personal use only for free for up to 14 days. Thereafter, in order to continue personal use, you must pay at least US$10 per user and register the software.

You are specifically prohibited from charging, or requesting donations, for any such copies, however made; and from distributing the software with other products (commercial or otherwise) without prior written permission.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author disclaim all warranties regarding this software, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will the author be liable for consequential, special, incidental or indirect damages arising out of the use or inability to use this software
even if I'm aware of the possibility of such damages or a known defect.


By using this software, you are agreeing to the above terms.

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2. Registration

Please, send to the following address :

Pierre LEVY
57, rue Claude DECAEN
75012 PARIS
FRANCE

a fulfilled printout of this registration form with the payment of your license
in only travaller check or cash.
Your email address should be absolutely correct.

For further or more recent information, or for online registration see :
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/register.htm

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3. Change log

2.2 - New cache system. MP3 Explorer will create a cache file named "mp3cache.mex" in each scanned address. When searching files, the program will begin to search the cache file, and if found it will load information from it instead scanning all directories. When data are modified, in one subdirectories of the address, you can force MP3 Explorer to rebuild the cache file with F5 key. This cache file could be copied on a CD. You can now read the catalog of an 640 MB MP3 CD in 2 or 3 seconds (that should change your life !). Further more, it's also working with 'My favorite addresses'. You only need to create one file for each address by scanning them individually.
NB : the option Use cache file is not saved if not registered, so it must be checked at each
startup to evaluate the software.
- New option that enable to minimize to system tray.
- This new glamorous readme format.
- Few little bugs, of course !
2.1 Two new advanced options :
1 - You can now define the correct shell command to use with your player. Default values are defined for Winamp, and works with Sonique or K-Jofol, but they can be changed for NAD or Soritong.
2 - A maximum of row displayed. If you had tried to display more than 1400 files, the program crashed (due to a limit of the listview control). So the default value is 1000. If you want to speed up the startup you can decrease this value. Whatever, you can continue to encode, or download with no fear !
- 2 or 3 tiny bugs.
2.0.2 - Great sorting improvment that couldn't wait for 2.1.
(VC++ profiler does a good job, to find my bad job !).
- A bug in ID3 tag saving introduced in 2.0.1 has been quickly fixed.
2.0.1 - I could not understand the problem that appeared
on some configuration at startup, so no more use of the registry,
back to a good old INI file located in Windows directory.
- Better exception handling.
- Tab order modified in property box.
- Enqueue improvement with multiple selection files.
- and other tiny bugs fixed.
2.0 - Display now MPEG information :
time, bitrate, sample frequency, MPEG version, layer number
- New options for managing columns display (show/hide, order, alignment)
- New menu command and toolbar button to display all information or a predefined set of columns (related to options above).
- New organization by Album/Artist (new toolbar button too)
- Multiple drives scanning can be handled now with a new variable called 'My favorite addresses'. You can search all paths defined in this variable by typing * in the address bar.
- Secondary sorting (the previous sort order) is now saved.
- Registration management.
- Many user interface enhancements : credits review, icons, status bar, ...
- Many code optimization. The previous version was quite fast, the new one goes really faster.
- New command Select All (Ctrl+A) to select all files.
freeware

1.5 Enter and Tab keys are now handled
- New list options are available to :
- define the Enter and Double-Click action
- select item from any column of the row
- left justify or center columns text
- Redraw and sorting have been optimized
- The sorted column is now saved between two sessions
1.4.1 - Copy feature includes now the PC/DOS new line for standard text editor.
- All WinAmp genres are now supported and some mismatch in old genres have also been fixed. (Some changes may occur in your categories ! Sorry about that)
- Window's last position is now saved
1.4 - New Copy feature. Be aware, this function copy only informations in text format and not files themself. You can now copy file informations into Word, Excel or whatever.
- If your MP3 files are write-protected, you've got now a message box to indicate you that the operation failed.
- Directories color changed (yellow was no such good idea)
1.3 - User options are now preserved between two sessions : View (Artist/Genre)
- The five last address are saved between two sessions
- Columns sorting order is now ascendant or descendant (Wow!)
- Shell command problems are now reported by message boxes.
- Few status bar enhancements
- Directories are now represented by a folder icon (What for ? ...to put some yellow!)
- This release has been compiled with the last C++ Service Pack from Microsoft - This may correct some rare and odd problems.
1.2 - Titles sorting by columns now available
- Multiple selection works now with other players that WinAMP (but not Enqueue).
- New Status bar
1.1.1 - A bug due to new winamp2's genre was fixed.
1.1 - New Address bar
- New Toolbar with hot/cold buttons
1.0 - First release

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4. Known issues

- !!! Important !!! On some platform, the address bar does not appear and
the wonderful animate icon is on the left side of the window. It's a known
problem reported by Microsoft due to an outdated version of the comctl32.dll.
The version of this DLL should be 4.71 or upper.
To get an updated version go to :
http://support.microsoft.com/download/support/mslfiles/Com32upd.exe

- Because players remove the ID3 tag during the play, information concerning
the currently playing tune at scan time, is wrong.

- The command Enqueue works only with player that support the feature
at the shell level. With some player as Sonique for example the Play command
do the same as Enqueue if you select the 'Append to playlist' option.

- (With 2.0.0 and older releases)
On some platform in very rare cases, the program is crashing (Visual C++
runtime Error - abnormal program termination) at load time. Deleting all
MP3 Explorer entries in the registry works in most cases.
Entries are located at : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Bepo Softs
Using regedit.exe, you can remove the entire 'Bepo Softs' directory, but
don't touch anything else in the registry !!

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5. Updates

All updated releases can be downloaded at :
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/


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6. FAQ

Q1. MP3 files don't play when I select the Play or Enqueue menu items in MP3
Explorer. What is wrong?

A1. Because MP3 Explorer is not an MP3 player, it sends either:
- a single MP3 filename with a .MP3 extension or
- a file (playlist) containing a list of MP3 filenames with a .M3U
extension to an MP3 player application.

The MP3 files are sent to the player using the Shell commands:
- 'Play' or
- 'Enqueue' (Note: Some players don't support 'Enqueue' eg: Sonique or
Nad)
If your player uses a different shell command such as 'Open'
then your player will not receive a message from MP3 Explorer
because MP3 Explorer will not recognize that there is a .MP3 or .M3U
file associated with your player.

Q2. Problem with multiple selections play.

A2. Multiple selections are handle with a temporaly playlist file named '~playlst.m3u'
in the TEMP directory. Verify 'm3u' is correctly associated to your player in the Shell.

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7. Create a link to MP3 Explorer homepage

That's a great idea I will really appreciate !

To link to MP3 Explorer homepage, insert the following code in your page :

- for a 83 x 31 banner

<A HREF="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/">
<IMG SRC="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/explorer.gif"
WIDTH="83" HEIGHT="31" BORDER=0 >
</A>

- for 32 x 32 icon

<A HREF="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/">
<IMG SRC="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pierre_levy/logo32.gif"
WIDTH="32" HEIGHT="32" BORDER=0 >
</A>

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