WARNING: I wrote this in 2004. There shouldn't be anything wrong with the code,
but I haven't updated it at all. And when you're reading this, please remember it
was written by a 17-year-old who drank coffee by the pot.
Roombox 0.9.0: Modular Audio Player
-----------------------------------
Roombox is an audio player developed with the Ruby programming language. It
features a modular design and a distributed client-server model, using DRb.
This package includes both client and server code, along with a number of
plugins for input, output, and notification.
DEVELOPMENT STATUS
Roombox is in an alpha state, but it's usable enough that I use it as my primary
audio player. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
I don't do nearly enough error checking or exception catching or documentation.
All of that will come before I dub any release 1.0.0.
INSTALLATION
Very easy.
# ruby install.rb system [bindir] [libdir]
or
$ ruby install.rb user bindir libdir
For system-wide installation, bindir defaults to /usr/local/bin, and libdir
defaults to Ruby's sitelibdir (something like /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/site-ruby).
INSTALLED FILES
In bindir:
- roombox (server)
- roomboxctl (client)
In libdir:
- roombox/... (libraries)
FEATURES
Roombox currently includes the following:
* Server (roombox)
* Input plugins for a couple formats. Most require third-party libraries (see
REQUIREMENTS)
- VorbisInput: reads Ogg Vorbis audio files.
- Mpg123Input: reads MPEG Layer 3 audio files (with the program mpg123).
* Output plugins
- AoOutput: output using the libao audio output library.
- AplayOutput: output using the 'aplay' command or any other command that
accepts raw audio data on standard input.
* Notifier plugins
- XosdOutput: displays messages using the X On-Screen Display library.
* Basic playlist manipulation: add, sort, next, previous, pause, resume.
* Clients:
- client-irb.rb: very raw client. Literally just opens up an IRB session.
- roomboxctl: command line client that supports most, if not all, operations.
UNFEATURES
Roombox doesn't yet include the following. Yeah, it's a long list.
* Filter plugins: supported, but none written.
* Some input plugins I'd like to see: FLAC, SHN, etc.
* MP3 decoding without an external program.
* Several playlist operations: remove, save, load, shuffle, repeat.
* Sorting on any other attribute than filename.
* Playlist preloading. Playlists in general are quite primitive -- for now.
* Loading other info than album, title, and artist.
* Seeking within a file.
* Streaming audio.
* A GUI client.
* Configuration other than messing with the source.
Roombox will likely never include the following:
* A volume control or mixer. Clients may implement one, but there are many ways
to adjust your mixer in just about any OS, and I don't want to duplicate them.
MISFEATURES
There are still a few unfortunate things about Roombox.
* It's slow. Well, the operation isn't slow, but the server-client model adds
some overhead to commands. It takes a bit less than a second to pause or change
songs.
* It doesn't do much yet. See UNFEATURES.
BASIC USE
$ roombox # Will fork off
$ roomboxctl add blah.ogg # Add single file
$ roomboxctl add 'music/*.mp3' # Add a glob -- NOTE THE SINGLE QUOTES
$ roomboxctl play # Starts playing at first item
$ roomboxctl next # Skips forward one song
$ roomboxctl prev # Skips back one song
$ roomboxctl jump 10 # Jumps to the 10th song, if it exists
$ roomboxctl goto "Diamond Dogs" # Goes to first song with the string in its name
$ roomboxctl sort-ascending # Sorts the playlist in ascending order
$ roomboxctl sort-descending # Sorts the playlist in descending order
$ roomboxctl current # Prints current position in playlist
$ roomboxctl filename # Prints the file currently playing
$ roomboxctl see-next # Prints the next filename in the playlist
$ roomboxctl see-prev # Prints the previous filename in the playlist
$ roomboxctl find "Cold Brains" # Prints the position in the playlist of the
# file with that string in its name
$ roomboxctl version # Prints roombox version, 'roombox M.m.r'
$ roomboxctl status # Prints roombox status, 'stopped', 'paused',
# or 'playing'
$ roomboxctl pause # Pauses output
$ roomboxctl unpause # Restarts output
$ roomboxctl stop # Stops play entirely
$ roomboxctl stfu # Prevents the roombox server from writing to
# stdout or stderr.
$ roomboxctl quit # Closes roombox
$ roomboxctl kill # If it just won't go away. ;-)
COMPATIBILITY
I run Roombox with Ruby 1.8.2 on GNU/Linux, using ALSA for audio. I personally
use the AoOutput plugin. If you have successes or failures on other platforms,
please do tell me.
REQUIREMENTS
Using third-party libraries is good for everyone. It reduces time of development,
helps improve currently existing libraries, and is generally good practice.
It literally took me less than a day to get to the operational point Roombox is
at, and I feel like I barely did any work. Of course, dependencies can be annoying.
Roombox depends on the presence of the Ruby interpreter, of course.
Plugins have individual requirements that they will check for on load. Some of the
libraries mentioned here may have their own requirements.
- AoOutput: requires Ruby-AudioOutput <http://rikkus.info/ruby_audiooutput.html>.
- AplayOutput: requires ALSA's aplay or any other program that takes raw audio.
- VorbisInput: requires Ruby-VorbisFile <http://rikkus.info/ruby_vorbisfile.html>.
Ruby-VorbisFile 0.2 has a fatal bug when trying to load comments; if you're using
that version (which is the latest as of this writing), you'll need a small patch
included as rbf-comment-fix.patch.
- Mpg123Input: requires mpg123 <http://www.mpg123.de/>. mp3taglib
<http://rubyforge.org/projects/mp3taglib/> is optional for metadata
loading.
- XosdNotifier: requires ruby-xosd >=1.1.0 <http://djur.desperance.net/ruby/> and a
running osd_buf_server instance.
DOCUMENTATION
See BASIC USE above, mostly. I'm working on a spec for clients right now.
CREDITS
The author of this application is Matt 'djur' Boeh <mboeh@desperance.net>. I am
a student, a webmaster, and a Ruby enthusiast, and a world-class lover, and also
a doctor, lawyer, and nuclear physicist... er, sorry, daydreaming again.
I wrote Roombox because it was fun, because I like Ruby, and because I've always
had little personal issues with certain aspects of most media players. If you
like it, use it, or have some sort of advice, please email me.
New releases, information, etc. can be found at Roombox's website, located at
<http://djur.desperance.net/ruby/roombox>. My other Ruby stuff can be found,
logically, at <http://djur.desperance.net/ruby>.
Special thanks go to Rik Hemsley <http://rikkus.info>; without his work on
Ruby-VorbisFile and Ruby-AudioOutput, I likely would not have had the patience
to make this work.
The very helpful mp3tag binding was written by Guillaume Pierronnet. Thanks.
Boy, I'm sure navel-gazing with this README, aren't I? :-p
Finally, thanks to matz for a language that makes code feel more like play than
work. There's no language quite like it.
DNE EHT.