1. Re: MIDI music
- Posted by Brent Hugh <bhugh at CSTP.UMKC.EDU>
Sep 30, 1999
-
Last edited Oct 01, 1999
At 12:09 AM 09/30/1999 -0400, you wrote:
>I,m using the following:
>
>mciSendString = define_c_func(winmm,"mciSendStringA",{C_INT,C_INT,
>C_INT,C_INT}, C_INT)
>
>in my programs to prevent a win32lib error report,
>and the following to 'play' a MIDI file.
>
>if mciSendString != -1 then
>PlayMidiFile("roary2.mid") -- start the muzak !
>end if
>
>Is there anything else I need to do to prevent a possible EU crash on a
>system that can't play MIDI for whatever reason, or am I just being
>paranoid?
One problem with the whole mci string thing is that is extremely
ill-documented. Even if you manage to track down the mcistr.hlp file (try
searching at altavista.com--you might get lucky) you find that it is far
from complete and sketchy even in those places it thinks it is complete.
I think, however, that if you try to play a file on a system that doesn't
have a device to play that file, it is simply ignored and nothing happens.
The usual nasty thing that happens with mcistring, is that you start
playing a very long midi or wave file, and you use the mci string that
tells mci to complete playing the file before returning execution to your
file (it can wait until finished before returning to your program, or
return to your program immediately and play in the background, depending on
the options you send mcistring) and at that point there is NO WAY short of
the reset key, to stop the file from playing all the way to the bitter
end. Better hope it's only 5 minutes long and not 50 minutes . . .
--Brent
++++++++++++++++++++ Brent Hugh / bhugh at cstp.umkc.edu ++++++++++++++++++++
+ University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music +
+ Sheet Music/Recordings: http://www.sunflower.org/~bhugh/pathetic.spm +
+ Internet Piano Concert: http://cctr.umkc.edu/userx/bhugh/recital.html +
++++++++++ Classical Piano MP3s http://www.mp3.com/brent_d_hugh ++++++++++
