Improvements to TUNE.COM

[Joao Miguel Duraes]

I have been sitting on this one for a while, waiting for Wayne to release v3.6.

Not wishing to spoil Massimo's party too much, I have also been working on improved player abilities, but I have added them directly into TUNE.COM. I am hoping for Wayne to allow me to do a PR for this, but even though I have done extensive testing on it, I would appreciate additional feedback from others before I request a PR.

The most striking feature I have added to TUNE.COM is support for TurboSound capable PT3 files. These are files increasingly popular files that encode two tracks to be played on two distinct AY-3-8910/YM2149 chips, if present in the system. At present on RC2014/RCBus systems, this will route music to cards configured for MSX and Coleco addresses. 

In sum, you must have two cards on your system, configured for these addresses. I use two of Ed Brindley's YM2149 Rev6.1 cards for this. TUNE.COM has supported MSX addressing for a while, and Coleco support was added to it still on the v3.5.x train for RomWBW. I am developing a (read, altering an existing one) modified AVR-AY module so that these can be played on a single Ed Brindley card, but this is not yet complete.

In addition to TurboSound, I have also added support for playing all PT3 files that may exist on the current directory (-all) and also loop support (-loop), which was something Wayne had on a wishlist I read somewhere. 

Prerelease for TUNE.COM:

• Added TurboSound PT3 playback support for dual AY-3-8910/YM2149 setups (MSX + Coleco addressing modes), with hardware detection/validation. 

• Expanded CLI usability with clearer option handling and built-in help (-help / --help). 

• Added playlist playback mode for PT3 files in the current directory (-all). 

• Added loop mode (-loop) for both single-track and playlist playback. 

• Added interactive playlist controls during playback:

   - Esc = quit playback

   - ? = show playlist information / remaining playlist

   - any other key = skip to next track

• Improved runtime status output for playback mode and track progression.

I like Massimo's addition to PLAY.COM (turned into PLAYER.COM) so I may later borrow your ideas, if you don't mind.

The binary for TUNE.COM can be obtained from my fork of RomWBW:

https://github.com/jduraes/RomWBW/blob/turbosound/Binary/Apps/tune.com

The branch turbosound also includes the source code for it.

I would appreciate feedback. Happy for issues to be raised directly into my fork, or as a response to this post. Please do not bother Wayne on these.

Cheers,

Miguel

P.S.: AI/LLM support was heavily relied upon, while making these additions.

[Massimo]

Feel free to take my ideas I posted it here for exactly that purpose.

I started from PLAY.COM because when using TUNE.COM it mangled the console output when playing certain files, as in the console still worked fine but with all gibberish symbols while PLAY didn't.

I don't know if you saw the same behavior, I had it with for example Isus.pt2 and few others from here https://github.com/electrified/rc2014-ym2149/tree/4b8af5396633bc87178b81087cec0f71b8307908/player/tunes

[Joao Miguel Duraes]

Thank you. 

Yes, I saw the same behaviour which is why I left it out for now. I believe the reason why this happens is because different files treat their metadata in slightly different ways and TUNE.COM processes them accordingly.

I am working on a streaming approach for the next iteration, allowing files >TPA to be played. As a consequence, I will also have to iterate on how the metadata is processed, so this should then work fine.

M

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[Joao Miguel Duraes]

Massimo, what do you say? :-)

Still a few things to iron out, but getting there.

M

[Massimo]

I like the expanded list of files, it's definitely a better use of screen realestate.

One idea I had but didn't add is to have the filename and metadata being displayed on the LCD if there's one (I mean the built-in support via the LCD driver module)

[Wayne Warthen]

Looks like some very nice improvements.  I apologize, I have not had time to review all of this.

On the surface, it seems like a substantial change to the existing TUNE.COM application.  I'm thinking it would make sense to distribute this as a new and distinct application.  It could be called TUNE2.COM or PLAY.COM I guess.  This would obviate the need for me to try and verify it is still fully compatible with the existing TUNE.COM.  For those sensitive to the use of AI, they could still use the old application.

Thanks, Wayne

[Massimo]

PLAY.COM would conflict with the existing variation of TUNE.COM by GrreenZ so I suggest PLAYER.COM.

The key features should be playing the existing file formats (duh), automatically loading the files from the slice, playing the selected file and automatically playing the next one afterwards.

In other words the main advantage/improvement is having an automatically created playlist.

As I said before I like how the list of files is displayed in Joao's version but perhaps it's a little too verbose for my taste but it's just a minor detail

[Joao Miguel Duraes]

Thanks both.

I hear you Wayne, and totally respect that. As for naming, I am going to opt for the original name I was working towards that not only makes it clear that it was vibe-coded, but also plays homage to the original.

So its name shall be VIBETUNE.COM.

It is currently in flux. I have added two additional branches on it, with a few more features:

- It now again supports PT2, PT3 (both normal and TurboSound) and MYM. 

- The size of the playlist is dependent on the width of the terminal screen, which can be configured with -config. Setting the screen to 80 columns, will fit 5 columns of playlist. That might be more to your liking, Massimo.

- Setting it up with -config will also allow selection of plain text (just like the original), vt100 and ANSI colours. 

- The playlist is full navigable in VT100/ANSI using wasd (modern, I know), and PC cursor escape codes - so you can also use the cursor keys.

- Looping a track and looping playlist are toggable options.

- There are a few other things, but I'll disclose them when I feel they're ready.

I will go ahead and rename the app on my local git and will the necessary changes in the app.

Before I push it to my fork, the pre-renamed v3.2 b100 is currently up on my github, should you wish to give it a go and report any issues:

https://github.com/jduraes/RomWBW/blob/playlist/Source/Apps/Tune/tune.com

Question, Wayne: should I continue versioning from v3.2 or restart it? I always get confused about more recent software that follows on the footsteps of prior, with a lesser version number, but I don't want to imply that, say, v4 is the "natural evolution of the 'old' v3.2". What do you think?

M