1. ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
Ok, now I've got myself in a bind: I didn't give enough information about
the playSound/setVisible problem I'm having.
Greg's suggestion that I use asynchronous parameters to make a wave file
play without hindering the display of an invisible control worked just fine
in my DEMO of the problem, but NOT in my program, because my demo was an
inadequate abstract of my program problem. (sigh!) My program actually
plays a SUCCESSION of wave files (by a succession of playsounds), to
implement "reading" a math flash card (eg,"one" "plus" "one" "equals"
"two"), and when I make the PlaySound asynchronous, it only plays the LAST
wave file in the sequence. NG.
So if I make PlaySound ASYNCHRONOUS, it allows user actions to interupt a
sound, and lets invisible controls be set visible before the sound occurs
(when that's what the program flow is), BUT, it won't play a complete
SEQUENCE of wave files one after another, just the last one;
but if I make PlaySound SYNCHRONOUS, it WILL play each specified wave file
in sequence, but it WON'T set invisible controls visible before the sound,
even when the program says to.
I have this bad feeling that both playing a succession of wave files &
setVisible a control before the sound can't be done together?
Any thoughts??
Dan Moyer
On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:23:20 -0400, Greg Harris <blackdog at CDC.NET> wrote:
>Hi Dan,
>Your example was set to synchronous playback. You want async playback
>using the SND_ASYNC flag.
><snip>
>Try:
>>procedure playsound(sequence wave)
> atom file
> file = allocate_string(wave)
> c_proc(xPlaySound, {file, 0, 1})
> free(file)>end procedure>>(Coded on the fly.. should work :)>>Regards,>
>Greg Harris>
2. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
Hi Dan,
Sounds like you are the victim of one sound at a time syndrome. It's a
hardware feature on most sound cards. My SB Live! can mix sounds realtime
but most SB compatibles cannot. You probably will have to use sync sounds
and use a work around or figure some way to tell if the first sound is
finished before you start the next one.
Sorry I can't be of any more help.
Maybe use DirectX's DirectSound?
Regards,
Greg Harris
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Friday, October 29, 1999 6:25 AM
Subject: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
> Ok, now I've got myself in a bind: I didn't give enough information about
> the playSound/setVisible problem I'm having.
>
> Greg's suggestion that I use asynchronous parameters to make a wave file
> play without hindering the display of an invisible control worked just
fine
> in my DEMO of the problem, but NOT in my program, because my demo was an
> inadequate abstract of my program problem. (sigh!) My program actually
> plays a SUCCESSION of wave files (by a succession of playsounds), to
> implement "reading" a math flash card (eg,"one" "plus" "one" "equals"
> "two"), and when I make the PlaySound asynchronous, it only plays the LAST
> wave file in the sequence. NG.
>
> So if I make PlaySound ASYNCHRONOUS, it allows user actions to interupt a
> sound, and lets invisible controls be set visible before the sound occurs
> (when that's what the program flow is), BUT, it won't play a complete
> SEQUENCE of wave files one after another, just the last one;
>
> but if I make PlaySound SYNCHRONOUS, it WILL play each specified wave file
> in sequence, but it WON'T set invisible controls visible before the sound,
> even when the program says to.
>
> I have this bad feeling that both playing a succession of wave files &
> setVisible a control before the sound can't be done together?
>
> Any thoughts??
>
> Dan Moyer
3. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 06:25:31 -0400, Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET> wrote:
>but if I make PlaySound SYNCHRONOUS, it WILL play each specified wave file
>in sequence, but it WON'T set invisible controls visible before the sound,
>even when the program says to.
>
>I have this bad feeling that both playing a succession of wave files &
>setVisible a control before the sound can't be done together?
>
>Any thoughts??
>
>Dan Moyer
Hmmm... this is a strange one. I've been experimenting with this issue and
I've come up with nothing. I used your previous example to experiment and
if you click the "CLICK HERE" button multiple times (before the first
playback finishes) it will play the sound multiple times before the control
becomes visible. (At first I thought that it might show up after playing
the first sound...)
Bernie, do you have any ideas? You seem to know quite a bit about the
Windows API. All that win32lib is doing for 'setVisible' is calling the
Windows function 'ShowWindow'. Why would 'PlaySound' prevent a ShowWindow,
even when called after ShowWindow (and even when triggered multiple
times...)
I'm stumped,
Brian
4. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
Further experimentation: I added the playsound to the Restart_onClick
function:
procedure Restart_onClick ()
setVisible(LText2,False)
playsound("test.wav")
end procedure
and here there is no problem... The control becomes invisible before the
sound is played. But I still don't see why it doesn't work the same when
making the control visible...
5. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET>
Oct 29, 1999
-
Last edited Oct 30, 1999
Brian,
I'm not totally sure about this, but when I was testing this problem to see
what I could understand about it, I THINK I found that the "setVisible
false" is NOT what makes the control disappear in this situation, re your
test. What I remember doing is this:
in my application, I am actually making a combination of labels & list
boxes selectivly show or not show, & that's what is not being set visible
when they should when a sound is played AFTER they're told to be visible;
so, as a test, I rigged the program so that the code which should make one
set of controls INVISIBLE and a new set VISIBLE when a button is clicked,
had the portion that would make the current set invisible commented out ,
and when I tested it, THE CURRENT CONTROL DISAPPEARED ANYWAY on button
click; then when the "new" control became visible after the sound played,
the old control THEN showed up superimposed over it (since it wasn't set
invisible). But even though it hadn't been set invisible, it DID disappear
on the initial button click.
So my guess is that something about the initial action of the setVisible
command erases the control specified BEFORE it checks for whether or not
the parameter is true or false, and THEN the sound routine takes over,
leaving the control not there until the sound is finished playing, and THEN
the setVisible parameter is checked & the control is either made visible or
made invisible.
Does that seem at all likely to be happening? It would explain your
result, if that is what is going on, though I'm not sure what it might say
about a fix. I'll have to check my myrid sequence of test versions to see
if what I described doing & seeing is accurate, but I think it is.
On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 18:41:29 -0400, Brian Broker <bkb at CNW.COM> wrote:
>Further experimentation: I added the playsound to the Restart_onClick
>function:
>
>procedure Restart_onClick ()
> setVisible(LText2,False)
> playsound("test.wav")
>end procedure
>
>and here there is no problem... The control becomes invisible before the
>sound is played. But I still don't see why it doesn't work the same when
>making the control visible...
6. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET>
Oct 29, 1999
-
Last edited Oct 30, 1999
All,
I've thought up a possible work around to my problem of playing multiple
wave files interfering with the orderly setVisible of relevant controls,
but I don't know how to implement it.
Since the asynchronous playSound WILL play ONE wave AND allow previous
setVisible commands to occur properly first, what I thought to do is:
"on the fly" (as the program executes, not before hand), read the sound
data in each desired wave file in sequence, putting the data into ONE BIG
data structure which temporarily combines all the desired spoken words, &
then send that single data structure to playSound? (I don't THINK that
would take too long to do for each flash card, but I'm not really sure.)
If that sounds reasonable, the problem becomes that I don't know how to do
it, in terms of the format of wave files, how to combine them into one
correct data structure, & whether & how to send that to playSound, since it
isn't a file.
Any thoughts/suggestions ??
7. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Bernie Ryan <bwryan at PCOM.NET>
Oct 29, 1999
-
Last edited Oct 30, 1999
This code works
Bernie
------------------------------< cut >------------------------------------
-- demo of problem with .wav sound happening before setVisible,
-- even though setVisible is commanded before playsound.
include Win32Lib.ew
without warning
--- BELOW ARE MY ADDED CONSTANTS bernie
constant True = -1, False = 0, ALWAYS_NULL = 0
global constant
TheWindow = create( Window, "Sound/setVisible Problem", 0, 100, 100, 684,
388,0),
LText2 = create( LText, "LText2", TheWindow, 132, 96, 444, 76, 0 ),
Restart = create( PushButton, "RESTART", TheWindow, 248, 264, 132, 36, 0 ),
DoTest = create( PushButton, "CLICK HERE", TheWindow, 248, 192, 132, 40, 0),
LText5 = create( LText, "LText5", TheWindow, 136, 8, 408, 80, 0 )
---------------------------------------
-- TO PLAY A .WAV FILE:
procedure playsound(sequence wave)
atom file
file = allocate_string(wave)
c_proc(xPlaySound, {file, ALWAYS_NULL, SND_ASYNC})
free(file)
end procedure
------------------------------------
procedure TheWindow_onOpen ()
-- TEST INSTRUCTIONS:
setText(LText5,"THIS WORKS ON A AWE32 SOUNDCARD")
--TEXT TO SHOW WHEN BUTTON CLICKED ; MAKE IT INVISIBLE FOR NOW:
setFont(LText2,"Arial", 15,Bold)
setText(LText2,"This text should have shown BEFORE anything was spoken!")
setVisible(LText2,False)
end procedure
onOpen[TheWindow] = routine_id("TheWindow_onOpen")
-----------------------------------
--DO THE TEST:
procedure DoTest_onClick ()
setVisible(LText2,True)-- TEXT should become VISIBLE;
playsound("test.wav") -- THEN sound should happen.
end procedure
onClick[DoTest] = routine_id("DoTest_onClick")
------------------------------------
-- RESET TO DO TEST AGAIN:
procedure Restart_onClick ()
setVisible(LText2,False)
end procedure
onClick[Restart] = routine_id("Restart_onClick")
----------------------------------------------------------------------
WinMain( TheWindow )
-----------------------< cut >------------------------------------------
8. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
Bernie,
Yes, it does, (with minor mods: delete reassign of constants True & False),
but only for playing ONE wave file, & I need to play a succession of them.
If I use async & then try to play a succession of waves, to vocally read a
math flash card ("one.wav" "plus.wav" "one.wav" "equals.wav" "two.wav"), it
only plays the LAST wave file (presumably because it is intended to be
interuptable & do only whatever is the last thing requested).
My best thought so far is to combine the various desired multiple wave
files into a temporary data structure as needed while program is running
(like: tempwav = "one.wav" & "plus.wav" & "one.wav" & "equals.wav" &
"two.wav), and send that to playSound, BUT, I don't know how to combine the
waves in correct way, nor how to send them to async playsound as data
rather than file.
Dan
On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 22:08:18 -0400, Bernie Ryan <bwryan at PCOM.NET> wrote:
>This code works
>
>Bernie
>
>------------------------------< cut >------------------------------------
>
>-- demo of problem with .wav sound happening before setVisible,
>-- even though setVisible is commanded before playsound.
>
>include Win32Lib.ew
>without warning
>
>
>--- BELOW ARE MY ADDED CONSTANTS bernie
>constant True = -1, False = 0, ALWAYS_NULL = 0
>
>global constant
>TheWindow = create( Window, "Sound/setVisible Problem", 0, 100, 100, 684,
>388,0),
>LText2 = create( LText, "LText2", TheWindow, 132, 96, 444, 76, 0 ),
>Restart = create( PushButton, "RESTART", TheWindow, 248, 264, 132, 36, 0 ),
>DoTest = create( PushButton, "CLICK HERE", TheWindow, 248, 192, 132, 40,
0),
>LText5 = create( LText, "LText5", TheWindow, 136, 8, 408, 80, 0 )
>---------------------------------------
>-- TO PLAY A .WAV FILE:
>procedure playsound(sequence wave)
>atom file
> file = allocate_string(wave)
> c_proc(xPlaySound, {file, ALWAYS_NULL, SND_ASYNC})
> free(file)
>end procedure
>------------------------------------
>procedure TheWindow_onOpen ()
>
>-- TEST INSTRUCTIONS:
> setText(LText5,"THIS WORKS ON A AWE32 SOUNDCARD")
>
>--TEXT TO SHOW WHEN BUTTON CLICKED ; MAKE IT INVISIBLE FOR NOW:
> setFont(LText2,"Arial", 15,Bold)
> setText(LText2,"This text should have shown BEFORE anything was spoken!")
> setVisible(LText2,False)
>end procedure
>
>onOpen[TheWindow] = routine_id("TheWindow_onOpen")
>-----------------------------------
>--DO THE TEST:
>procedure DoTest_onClick ()
> setVisible(LText2,True)-- TEXT should become VISIBLE;
> playsound("test.wav") -- THEN sound should happen.
>end procedure
>
>onClick[DoTest] = routine_id("DoTest_onClick")
>------------------------------------
>-- RESET TO DO TEST AGAIN:
>procedure Restart_onClick ()
> setVisible(LText2,False)
>end procedure
>
>onClick[Restart] = routine_id("Restart_onClick")
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>WinMain( TheWindow )
>
>-----------------------< cut >------------------------------------------
9. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
Brian,
I think my comments about your test were irrelevant, on two counts.
First, the "asynchronous" mode for playSound fixes the problem, at least
when playing ONE wave file (it remains for me to find out how to make it
work with MULTIPLE wave files);
second, although my code did perform as I remembered, (blanking out a
control sort of independent of its being set invisible), it was simply
because I had a NUMBER of similar controls placed at the same location (on
purpose), and while I wasn't setting the control under question invisible,
I WAS setting all the OTHERS invisible, & I think that was responsible for
the blanking I was seeing (as it "interacted" with SYNCHRONOUS playSound).
But as you observed, it still doesn't explain why setVisible false will
work correctly when placed before synchronous playSound, and setVisible
True won't.
Dan Moyer
On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 20:31:50 -0400, Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET> wrote:
>Brian,
>
>I'm not totally sure about this, but when I was testing this problem to see
>what I could understand about it, I THINK I found that the "setVisible
>false" is NOT what makes the control disappear in this situation, re your
>test. What I remember doing is this:
>
>in my application, I am actually making a combination of labels & list
>boxes selectivly show or not show, & that's what is not being set visible
>when they should when a sound is played AFTER they're told to be visible;
>
> so, as a test, I rigged the program so that the code which should make one
>set of controls INVISIBLE and a new set VISIBLE when a button is clicked,
>had the portion that would make the current set invisible commented out ,
>and when I tested it, THE CURRENT CONTROL DISAPPEARED ANYWAY on button
>click; then when the "new" control became visible after the sound played,
>the old control THEN showed up superimposed over it (since it wasn't set
>invisible). But even though it hadn't been set invisible, it DID disappear
>on the initial button click.
>
>So my guess is that something about the initial action of the setVisible
>command erases the control specified BEFORE it checks for whether or not
>the parameter is true or false, and THEN the sound routine takes over,
>leaving the control not there until the sound is finished playing, and THEN
>the setVisible parameter is checked & the control is either made visible or
>made invisible.
>
>Does that seem at all likely to be happening? It would explain your
>result, if that is what is going on, though I'm not sure what it might say
>about a fix. I'll have to check my myrid sequence of test versions to see
>if what I described doing & seeing is accurate, but I think it is.
>
>On Fri, 29 Oct 1999 18:41:29 -0400, Brian Broker <bkb at CNW.COM> wrote:
>
>>Further experimentation: I added the playsound to the Restart_onClick
>>function:
>>
>>procedure Restart_onClick ()
>> setVisible(LText2,False)
>> playsound("test.wav")
>>end procedure
>>
>>and here there is no problem... The control becomes invisible before the
>>sound is played. But I still don't see why it doesn't work the same when
>>making the control visible...
10. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Lewis Townsend <keroltarr at HOTMAIL.COM>
Nov 02, 1999
-
Last edited Nov 03, 1999
Hello,
This may not be the kind of fix you are looking for but it seems
that if you made all of your sound files exactly the same length
you could have you program check for time passed since the last
sound was started in order to know when to start the next one.
This way you're only playing one sound at a time.
Lewis Townsend
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
11. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET>
Nov 02, 1999
-
Last edited Nov 03, 1999
Lewis,
Yeah, I tried something like that, using an approximate time delay, but the
problem is that then the problem that ASYNC
On Tue, 2 Nov 1999 21:00:19 GMT, Lewis Townsend <keroltarr at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:
>Hello,
>
>This may not be the kind of fix you are looking for but it seems
>that if you made all of your sound files exactly the same length
>you could have you program check for time passed since the last
>sound was started in order to know when to start the next one.
>This way you're only playing one sound at a time.
>
>Lewis Townsend
>
>______________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
12. Re: ina bind: MULTIPLE playSound(async) vs setVisible
- Posted by Dan Moyer <DanMoyer at PRODIGY.NET>
Nov 02, 1999
-
Last edited Nov 03, 1999
sorry all, I was typing too fast & hit the wrong key & previous message was
sent incomplete :(
Lewis,
Yeah, I tried something like that, using an approximate time delay, but the
problem is that then the problem that ASYNC had "solved" (controls not
setVisible when they should) re-presented itself. The problem is
apparently NOT playsound sync or async, but in setVisible. I included a
demo of this in next post.
Thanks for trying, tho!
Dan
On Tue, 2 Nov 1999 21:00:19 GMT, Lewis Townsend <keroltarr at HOTMAIL.COM>
wrote:
>Hello,
>
>This may not be the kind of fix you are looking for but it seems
>that if you made all of your sound files exactly the same length
>you could have you program check for time passed since the last
>sound was started in order to know when to start the next one.
>This way you're only playing one sound at a time.
>
>Lewis Townsend
>
