AmiModRadio / 2015-07-13 05:12:38

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Did you know that, as of today (2015/06/02), there are more than 20,000 packages in the mods directory on Aminet? Yes! That's more than 20,000 modules to play and enjoy! So, why not have a program that could automatically download one module at-a-time, extract it, and play it? This is the purpose of AmiModRadio...

Essentials

AmiModRadio is composed essentially of four parts:

• A small FTP client to access Aminet and download archives containing modules;
• A XAD client to unarchive the downloaded archives;
• A ARexx command-and-control system to gently ask players to play the module;
• A MUI interface to control the various parts of AmiModRadio, in particular to permanently saved desired modules as well as pause/play and skip modules.

Command Line Usage

A typical session through the command line is as follows:

Initialising connection with player Initialising connection with Aminet	AmiModRadio looks for the ARexx ports of one of its known players and a FTP connection to Aminet
Exploring mods Exploring mods/funet Downloading TechnoHymn.lha .............................................. (Of length 148046) Saving TechnoHymn.lha in T: Extracting TechnoHymn.lha Playing module(s) Could not find any module to play:	AmiModRadio explores the (randomly chosen) folder mods/funet and downloads and extracts the (randomly chosen) file TechnoHymn.lha but it cannot recognise any module among the extracted files (It contains only one MED file!)
Going up and up Exploring mods Exploring mods/blasa Could not find a LHA file after 10 retries:	AmiModRadio goes up and now explores the folder mods/blasa, but it cannot find a random LHA file after ten attempts (It contains only LZX files!)
Going up and up Exploring mods Exploring mods/przk Downloading f-nofear.lha .............................................. ............... (Of length 216658) Saving f-nofear.lha in T: Extracting f-nofear.lha Playing module(s)	So, AmiModRadio goes up again and explores mods/przk and downloads and extracts the file f-nofear.lha in which it finds one module (named F-NoFeaR.MoD) to ask the player to play
Fetch another module? (Y/N)	Now, AmiModRadio waits for the user to either choose to play another module (and interrupt the current playing if any) or quit

Timeline

2015/07/12: After a momentary lapse of reason , the development resumed to implement a better text-based user-interface, separate the text-based from the MUI-based controls, fix some memory leaks and, overall, improve the usability of AmiModRadio. Next steps: finish implementing the text-based user-interface, in particular to allow baning directories and–or files .

2015/06/20: Improved the implementation of the ARexx client. Also started to work on the MUI user-interface, including its artwork. Changed the makefile to manage the data. A typical session through the command line is as follows:

Initialising connection with player Initialising connection with Aminet	AmiModRadio looks for the ARexx ports of one of its known players and a FTP connection to Aminet
Exploring mods Exploring mods/funet Downloading TechnoHymn.lha .............................................. (Of length 148046) Saving TechnoHymn.lha in T: Extracting TechnoHymn.lha Playing module(s) Could not find any module to play:	AmiModRadio explores the (randomly chosen) folder mods/funet and downloads and extracts the (randomly chosen) file TechnoHymn.lha but it cannot recognise any module among the extracted files (It contains only one MED file!)
Going up and up Exploring mods Exploring mods/blasa Could not find a LHA file after 10 retries:	AmiModRadio goes up and now explores the folder mods/blasa, but it cannot find a random LHA file after ten attempts (It contains only LZX files!)
Going up and up Exploring mods Exploring mods/przk Downloading f-nofear.lha .............................................. ............... (Of length 216658) Saving f-nofear.lha in T: Extracting f-nofear.lha Playing module(s)	So, AmiModRadio goes up again and explores mods/przk and downloads and extracts the file f-nofear.lha in which it finds one module (named F-NoFeaR.MoD) to ask the player to play
Fetch another module? (Y/N)	Now, AmiModRadio waits for the user to either choose to play another module (and interrupt the current playing if any) or quit

2015/06/14: Fixed several small bugs, added a simplistic CLI-based user-interaction, added support for HippoPlayer, improved the speed of the download.

2015/06/11: All the pieces are working together! Only MultiPlayer is supported, no CLI, no GUI.

2015/06/10: The ARexx client is working and can interact with AmigaAMP as test.

2015/06/07: The XAD client is working and can extract LHA (and any others!) archives.

2015/05/29: The FTP client is working and random archives can be downloaded automatically.

2015/05/20: Start of the project using the great Cubic IDE and vbcc.

Downloads

AmiModRadio is open source. Its source code and binaries are available at SourceForge !

Links

About FTP:

• 425 Unable to build data connection;
• The commands understood by ProFTPd, the FTP server used by Aminet;
• Understanding the passive vs. active FTP modes.

¹ Icon by Rob under CC BY v3.0, thanks!