From: Duane Maxwell [SMTP:dmaxwell@launchpados.com]
MP3 decoding is pretty compute-intensive and probably would not be a good candidate for C translation, which violates the Squeak Portability Commandment. Most, if not all, implementations use assembly to reduce the CPU load to an acceptable level. However, there's some Open Source for MP3 players at http://www.freeamp.org that could probably be wrapped in a platform independent primitive to decode an MP3 stream to a Squeak-compatible sound buffer, if somebody wanted to take a stab at it (Chris?).
[Norton, Chris] Hi Duane (& co.).
Thanks for the suggestions and the URL; I'm sure you know better that I do about what would be required to make Squeak understand MP3 files. Actually, I am embarrassed to admit that I don't have the slightest idea how to compile Squeak for any platform, nor have I spent the time needed to understand the current Squeak Audio classes or the plug-in mechanism (I think Andreas Raab built my copy of Squeak 2.3 for Win 32). This kind of work is a bit beyond me at this point (I'm still a fledgling Squeaker - my wings a still wet!).
I offered the suggestion to the Squeak list because I thought it might inspire someone else to pick up the baton, as it were. With all of the chatter about Squeak and PDA support, I thought: "Gee, the Rio(tm) MP3 player could probably be replaced by Squeak running on any ol' PDA". This might give the world another reason to be interested in Squeak!
[My own Squeak projects have mostly been limited to the browser / tools / base class areas, as I do have some experience with other Smalltalk environments].
I'm afraid that I have more ideas than time to implement them! :-)
Thanks again...
---==> Chris
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