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## Musicus readme file
## $Id: 00readme,v 1.2 2004/04/20 22:19:16 muth Exp $
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ABOUT
=====

Musicus is a component of the Cjukebux  music management
system [http://muth.org/Robert/Cjukebox].
It is a linux command line tool that uses xmms [http://www.xmms.org/] 
pluggins for playing back music. It is written in C++.
Musicus can be either used in batch mode or in an interactive mode 
In batch mode the files given on the commandline will played.
In interactive mode the user can type in commands to start and stop songs, 
inquiring about song length, etc..
Typically the user will be another piece of software effectivly remote
controlling Musicus.
To see how this is done in python check out Cjukebox.
For perl see  
http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&query=POE%3A%3AComponent%3A%3APlayer%3A%3AMusicus

USAGE
=====

batch mode:

      musicus [option]* [songs]+

interactive mode 

      musicus [option]*

where options are 

-debug
       enable debug mode

-path  dirname
       set plugin path (default: /usr/lib/xmms/)

-output plugin
       set output plugin (default: libOSS.so)


In interactive mode type "help" to get an overview of available
commands. 

INSTALLATION
============

To compile musicus, a simple "make" should do.
Copy the resulting binary somewhere into your $PATH.

CAVEATS
=======

Musicus implements a minimum frame work for making xmms plugin work. 
This is in part accomplished by stubbing out some of the 
functionality that plugins can invoke inside xmms.

In rare circumstance this can lead to problems:
When a plugin for some reason or another wants to pop up a gui window
(to report an error say), musicus will crash because the gtk gui is never initialized.
Even though, gtk libraries are not used by musicus they nevertheless have to be 
present otherwise the dynamic loader will complain.


BUGS
====

Currenty the "libidcin.so" plugin cannot be handled and is 
therfore skipped.


COMMENTS
========

Please send comments and suggestions to robert at muth dot org
http://www.muth.org/Robert