Annotation of /libgig/trunk/README

Home
====
  You can always find the latest version of libgig at:
  http://www.linuxsampler.org/libgig/

Content
=======
  libgig actually consists of three major parts:

  - RIFF classes (RIFF.h, RIFF.cpp): Provides convenient methods to parse and
                                     access arbitrary RIFF files.
  - DLS classes (DLS.h, DLS.cpp):    They're using the RIFF classes to parse
                                     DLS (Downloadable Sounds) Level 1 and 2
                                     files and provide abstract access to the
                                     data.
  - gig classes (gig.h, gig.cpp):    These are based on the DLS classes and
                                     provide the necessary extensions for
                                     the Gigasampler/GigaStudio file format.

  Despite its name, libgig also provides (since version 4.0.0) support for
  other sampler file formats as well:

  - SoundFont classes (SF.h, SF.cpp):  They provide support for the very popular
                                       SoundFont v1 and v2 format (.sf2).

  - KORG classes (Korg.h, Korg.cpp):   Provides support for sample based sounds
                                       used on many KORG synthesizer keyboards.

  - Akai classes (Akai.h):             Currently S1000, S01, S2000 and S3000
                                       series are supported.

  Additionally libgig contains the following separate API:

  - Serialization classes (Serialization.h, Serialization.cpp):
                                       Framework to serialize and deserialize
                                       the runtime state of native C++ objects
                                       (for saving and restoring their states
                                       as abstract data).

  Beside the actual library there are following example applications:

    gigdump:     Demo app that prints out the content of a .gig file.
    gigextract:  Extracts samples from a .gig file.
    gigmerge:    Merges several .gig files to one .gig file.
    gig2mono:    Converts .gig files from stereo to mono.
    gig2stereo:  Converts .gig files to true interleaved stereo sounds.
    dlsdump:     Demo app that prints out the content of a DLS file.
    korgdump:    Prints out the content of the various KORG file types.
    korg2gig:    Convert KORG sound file to Gigasampler/GigaStudio format.
    sf2dump:     Prints out the content of a .sf2 file.
    sf2extract:  Extracts audio samples from a .sf2 file.
    rifftree:    Tool that prints out the RIFF tree of an arbitrary RIFF
                 file.
    akaidump:    Dump an AKAI media i.e. from a CDROM drive as disk image file
                 to your hard disk drive.
    akaiextract: Extracts samples from an Akai disk image, either from a media
                 (i.e. CDROM or Zip drive) for from a AKAI disk image file.

  Since version 3.0.0 libgig also provides write support, that is for
  creating modifying .gig, DLS and RIFF files.

Requirements
============
  POSIX systems (e.g. Linux, macOS):
  ---------------------------------

  You need at least to have libtool installed to be able to build the
  library with "./configure && make".

  Additionally you need to have either libaudiofile (>= 0.2.3) or
  libsndfile (>= 1.0.2) installed which is mandatory to be able to compile
  the 'gigextract' example application. But of course 'gigextract' is still
  just an example application, so it would make sense to compile it only if
  one of those libraries are available. That would remove that hard
  dependency to those two libs. But that's not a priority for me now.
  Note: for Windows systems only libsndfile is available.

  If you want to regenerate all autotools build files (that is configure,
  Makefile.in, etc.) then you need to have automake (>= 1.5) and autoconf
  installed.

  Windows:
  --------

  The precompiled versions of libgig (and its tools) should be compatible
  with any Windows operating system of at least Win95 or younger. Notice
  that all example / demo applications coming with libgig are pure console
  applications, thus you won't see a GUI showing up! :)

  If you want to compile libgig and its tools by yourself, please also
  notice the requirements under "Compiling for Windows".

  Other Operating Systems:
  ------------------------

  libgig was written to compile for any operating system, using standard C
  library functions. However the latest versions of libgig lack a portable
  implementation of one tiny method called RIFF::File::ResizeFile(). So you
  would either have to add native OS API calls for that particular method,
  that is dependant to your OS, or you have to add a portable
  implementation. No matter which way you choose, please let us know! :)

Compiling for Linux
===================
  You can either compile the sources and install the library directly on
  your system or you can create Redhat or Debian packages.

  a) Compiling and installing directly

  Call './configure && make' on the console to compile the library, all
  tools and demo applications, documentation and install them with
  'make install'. The latter has to be called as root.

  If you are compiling from CVS you have to call 'make -f Makefile.cvs'
  to generate all autotools build files before calling
  './configure && make'.

  You can use 'make distclean' and probably 'make -f Makefile.cvs clean'
  to clean up everything again. The latter will also delete all automatic
  generated autools build files.

  b) Creating Debian packages

  Use 'dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b' to compile and create the Debian
  packages. This will generate 3 Debian packages:

    libgig:      Contains the shared library files.
    libgig-dev:  Contains the header files and documentation for building
                 applications using libgig.
    gigtools:    Contains the tools and demo applications.

  You can use 'fakeroot debian/rules clean' to clean up everything again.

  c) Creating Redhat packages

  You need to have the rpmbuild tool installed and properly configured to
  create RPM packages. To create the RPM packages do the following:

    * Get .spec file generated by ./configure and edit it as appropriate.

    * Copy the source tarball to "/usr/src/<rpmdir>/SOURCES" directory,
      where <rpmdir> is dependent to the system you are using. For SuSE
      <rmpdir> will be "packages", for Mandrake <rpmdir> is "RPM" and for
      Redhat / Fedora <rpmdir> always equals "redhat".

    * Build the rpm(s) by invoking 'rpmbuild -bb <specfile>' from the
      command line.

  On success, the resulting rpm(s) can usually be found under the proper
  "/usr/src/<rpmdir>/RPMS/<arch>" directory.

Compiling for Windows
=====================

  libgig and its tools can be compiled for Windows using Bloodshed Dev-C++,
  which is a free (GPL) C++ integrated development environment for Windows.
  It is also possible to use MSYS from MinGW, which allows you to use
  './configure && make' like the linux builds.

  You can download Dev-C++ here:

    http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html

  Make sure you install a version with Mingw integrated.

  a) Compiling libgig.dll

  Simply open the project file "win32/libgig.dev" either directly in Dev-C++
  or by double clicking on the project file in the Windows explorer, then
  click on "Compile" in the Dev-C++ menu and that's it! After compilation
  finished, you can find the files "libgig.dll", "libgig.a" and
  "liblibgig.def" in the "win32" directory.

  b) Compiling the example tools "rifftree", "dlsdump" and "gigdump"

  You need to have libgig.dll compiled as described in a). Then you can
  compile the respective tool by simply opening the respective project
  (.dev) file and clicking on "Compile" from the Dev-C++ menu. After
  compilation you can find the respective .exe file in the "win32"
  directory.

  c) Compiling the example tool "gigextract"

  You need to have libgig.dll compiled as described in a). Also you need
  libsndfile (as DLL) which is used to create the .wav files. You can
  download libsndfile already precompiled as DLL here:

    http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/

  Extract the .zip file i.e. to "C:\". The libsndfile .dll file should then
  be i.e. under "C:\libsndfile-1_0_17". Beside the .dll file, make sure
  libsndfile's .lib file exists in that directory as well. If the .lib file
  does not exist yet, you have to create it with:

    dlltool --input-def libsndfile-1.def --output-lib libsndfile-1.lib

  Then you have to ensure the settings of gigextract's Dev-C++ project file
  are pointing to the correct location of your local copy of libsndfile. For
  that click in the Dev-C++ menu on "Project" -> "Project Options". Then
  click on the tab "Parameter" and make sure the path to "libsndfile-1.lib"
  in the "Linker" list view is correct. Then click on the tab "Directories"
  and then on the tab "Include Directories" and make sure the path to
  libsndfile points to the correct location there as well.

  After that you should finally be able to compile "gigextract" by clicking
  on "Compile" in the Dev-C++ menu. After compilation succeeded, you can
  find the "gigextract.exe" file in the "win32" directory.

Test Cases
==========
  The libgig sources come with a tiny console application which allows to
  automatically test libgig's functions on your system. This test
  application is not compiled by default, you have to compile it explicitly
  with the following commands on the console (cppunit has to be installed):

    cd src/testcases
    make libgigtests

  and then run the test application from the same directory with:

    ./libgigtests

License
=======
  libgig and its tools are released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

  libakai and its tools are released under the GNU Lesser General Public (LGPL).
  Due to its different license model the Akai support part is built as separate
  DLL (.so) file.

API Documentation
=================
  If you have Doxygen installed you can generate the API documentation by
  running 'make docs' in the sources' top level directory. The API
  documentation will be generated in the 'doc' subdirectory.

Patches
=======
  If you have bug fixes or improvements, your patches are always welcome!
  Send them either directly to me or to the LinuxSampler developer's mailing
  list <linuxsampler-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.

Bugs
====
  Please use http://bugs.linuxsampler.org to check and report possible bugs.
  You might also try to run the "Test Cases" coming with libgig (see above),
  especially in case you are running on an odd system.

Trademarks
==========
  Tascam, Gigasampler, GigaStudio, KORG, Trinity, Triton, OASYS, M3, Kronos
  and Akai are trademarks of their respective owners.

Credits
=======
  The initial library (Gigasampler part) was based on the reverse engineering
  effort of Paul Kellett and Ruben van Royen. We owe current support for the
  Gigasampler v3/v4 format to Andreas Persson. Please also have a look at the
  ChangeLog for all those who contributed.

  Akai support files are a ported version of S�bastien M�trot's libakai. The
  original libakai only supported Mac and Windows. This forked version of
  libakai now also supports Linux and other POSIX compliant operating systems
  as well and does not have a dependency to libngl as the original libakai had.

  The SoundFont 2 file format C++ classes were written by Grigor Iliev.

  Thanks to all of you for your great work!

 Christian Schoenebeck <cuse@users.sourceforge.net>
1	schoenebeck	859	Home
2			====
3			You can always find the latest version of libgig at:
4	schoenebeck	1406	http://www.linuxsampler.org/libgig/
5	schoenebeck	859
6	schoenebeck	2	Content
7			=======
8	schoenebeck	3370	libgig actually consists of three major parts:
9	schoenebeck	2
10			- RIFF classes (RIFF.h, RIFF.cpp): Provides convenient methods to parse and
11			access arbitrary RIFF files.
12			- DLS classes (DLS.h, DLS.cpp): They're using the RIFF classes to parse
13			DLS (Downloadable Sounds) Level 1 and 2
14			files and provide abstract access to the
15			data.
16			- gig classes (gig.h, gig.cpp): These are based on the DLS classes and
17	schoenebeck	312	provide the necessary extensions for
18	schoenebeck	3370	the Gigasampler/GigaStudio file format.
19	schoenebeck	2
20	schoenebeck	2785	Despite its name, libgig also provides (since version 4.0.0) support for
21			other sampler file formats as well:
22	schoenebeck	2543
23			- SoundFont classes (SF.h, SF.cpp): They provide support for the very popular
24			SoundFont v1 and v2 format (.sf2).
25
26			- KORG classes (Korg.h, Korg.cpp): Provides support for sample based sounds
27			used on many KORG synthesizer keyboards.
28
29	schoenebeck	2572	- Akai classes (Akai.h): Currently S1000, S01, S2000 and S3000
30			series are supported.
31
32	schoenebeck	3370	Additionally libgig contains the following separate API:
33
34			- Serialization classes (Serialization.h, Serialization.cpp):
35			Framework to serialize and deserialize
36			the runtime state of native C++ objects
37			(for saving and restoring their states
38			as abstract data).
39
40	schoenebeck	2490	Beside the actual library there are following example applications:
41	schoenebeck	650
42			gigdump: Demo app that prints out the content of a .gig file.
43			gigextract: Extracts samples from a .gig file.
44	schoenebeck	2490	gigmerge: Merges several .gig files to one .gig file.
45			gig2mono: Converts .gig files from stereo to mono.
46	schoenebeck	2785	gig2stereo: Converts .gig files to true interleaved stereo sounds.
47	schoenebeck	650	dlsdump: Demo app that prints out the content of a DLS file.
48	schoenebeck	2543	korgdump: Prints out the content of the various KORG file types.
49			korg2gig: Convert KORG sound file to Gigasampler/GigaStudio format.
50	schoenebeck	2785	sf2dump: Prints out the content of a .sf2 file.
51			sf2extract: Extracts audio samples from a .sf2 file.
52	schoenebeck	650	rifftree: Tool that prints out the RIFF tree of an arbitrary RIFF
53			file.
54	schoenebeck	2572	akaidump: Dump an AKAI media i.e. from a CDROM drive as disk image file
55			to your hard disk drive.
56			akaiextract: Extracts samples from an Akai disk image, either from a media
57			(i.e. CDROM or Zip drive) for from a AKAI disk image file.
58	schoenebeck	650
59	schoenebeck	859	Since version 3.0.0 libgig also provides write support, that is for
60			creating modifying .gig, DLS and RIFF files.
61
62	schoenebeck	2	Requirements
63			============
64	schoenebeck	3370	POSIX systems (e.g. Linux, macOS):
65	schoenebeck	650	---------------------------------
66	schoenebeck	2
67	schoenebeck	650	You need at least to have libtool installed to be able to build the
68			library with "./configure && make".
69	schoenebeck	2
70	schoenebeck	650	Additionally you need to have either libaudiofile (>= 0.2.3) or
71			libsndfile (>= 1.0.2) installed which is mandatory to be able to compile
72			the 'gigextract' example application. But of course 'gigextract' is still
73			just an example application, so it would make sense to compile it only if
74			one of those libraries are available. That would remove that hard
75			dependency to those two libs. But that's not a priority for me now.
76			Note: for Windows systems only libsndfile is available.
77
78			If you want to regenerate all autotools build files (that is configure,
79			Makefile.in, etc.) then you need to have automake (>= 1.5) and autoconf
80	schoenebeck	859	installed.
81	schoenebeck	650
82	schoenebeck	1063	Windows:
83			--------
84	schoenebeck	859
85	schoenebeck	1063	The precompiled versions of libgig (and its tools) should be compatible
86			with any Windows operating system of at least Win95 or younger. Notice
87			that all example / demo applications coming with libgig are pure console
88			applications, thus you won't see a GUI showing up! :)
89	schoenebeck	2
90	schoenebeck	1063	If you want to compile libgig and its tools by yourself, please also
91			notice the requirements under "Compiling for Windows".
92
93			Other Operating Systems:
94			------------------------
95
96			libgig was written to compile for any operating system, using standard C
97			library functions. However the latest versions of libgig lack a portable
98			implementation of one tiny method called RIFF::File::ResizeFile(). So you
99			would either have to add native OS API calls for that particular method,
100			that is dependant to your OS, or you have to add a portable
101			implementation. No matter which way you choose, please let us know! :)
102
103			Compiling for Linux
104			===================
105	schoenebeck	186	You can either compile the sources and install the library directly on
106			your system or you can create Redhat or Debian packages.
107	schoenebeck	2
108	schoenebeck	186	a) Compiling and installing directly
109
110	schoenebeck	650	Call './configure && make' on the console to compile the library, all
111			tools and demo applications, documentation and install them with
112			'make install'. The latter has to be called as root.
113	schoenebeck	186
114	schoenebeck	650	If you are compiling from CVS you have to call 'make -f Makefile.cvs'
115			to generate all autotools build files before calling
116			'./configure && make'.
117
118			You can use 'make distclean' and probably 'make -f Makefile.cvs clean'
119			to clean up everything again. The latter will also delete all automatic
120			generated autools build files.
121
122	schoenebeck	186	b) Creating Debian packages
123
124	schoenebeck	650	Use 'dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b' to compile and create the Debian
125			packages. This will generate 3 Debian packages:
126	schoenebeck	186
127			libgig: Contains the shared library files.
128			libgig-dev: Contains the header files and documentation for building
129			applications using libgig.
130			gigtools: Contains the tools and demo applications.
131
132	schoenebeck	650	You can use 'fakeroot debian/rules clean' to clean up everything again.
133	schoenebeck	186
134			c) Creating Redhat packages
135
136	schoenebeck	191	You need to have the rpmbuild tool installed and properly configured to
137			create RPM packages. To create the RPM packages do the following:
138	schoenebeck	186
139	schoenebeck	191	* Get .spec file generated by ./configure and edit it as appropriate.
140
141			* Copy the source tarball to "/usr/src/<rpmdir>/SOURCES" directory,
142			where <rpmdir> is dependent to the system you are using. For SuSE
143			<rmpdir> will be "packages", for Mandrake <rpmdir> is "RPM" and for
144			Redhat / Fedora <rpmdir> always equals "redhat".
145
146			* Build the rpm(s) by invoking 'rpmbuild -bb <specfile>' from the
147			command line.
148
149			On success, the resulting rpm(s) can usually be found under the proper
150			"/usr/src/<rpmdir>/RPMS/<arch>" directory.
151
152	schoenebeck	1063	Compiling for Windows
153			=====================
154	persson	1330
155	schoenebeck	1063	libgig and its tools can be compiled for Windows using Bloodshed Dev-C++,
156			which is a free (GPL) C++ integrated development environment for Windows.
157	persson	1330	It is also possible to use MSYS from MinGW, which allows you to use
158			'./configure && make' like the linux builds.
159	schoenebeck	1063
160	persson	1330	You can download Dev-C++ here:
161
162	schoenebeck	1063	http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
163
164			Make sure you install a version with Mingw integrated.
165
166			a) Compiling libgig.dll
167
168			Simply open the project file "win32/libgig.dev" either directly in Dev-C++
169			or by double clicking on the project file in the Windows explorer, then
170			click on "Compile" in the Dev-C++ menu and that's it! After compilation
171			finished, you can find the files "libgig.dll", "libgig.a" and
172			"liblibgig.def" in the "win32" directory.
173
174			b) Compiling the example tools "rifftree", "dlsdump" and "gigdump"
175
176			You need to have libgig.dll compiled as described in a). Then you can
177			compile the respective tool by simply opening the respective project
178			(.dev) file and clicking on "Compile" from the Dev-C++ menu. After
179			compilation you can find the respective .exe file in the "win32"
180			directory.
181
182			c) Compiling the example tool "gigextract"
183
184			You need to have libgig.dll compiled as described in a). Also you need
185			libsndfile (as DLL) which is used to create the .wav files. You can
186			download libsndfile already precompiled as DLL here:
187
188			http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/
189
190			Extract the .zip file i.e. to "C:\". The libsndfile .dll file should then
191			be i.e. under "C:\libsndfile-1_0_17". Beside the .dll file, make sure
192			libsndfile's .lib file exists in that directory as well. If the .lib file
193			does not exist yet, you have to create it with:
194
195			dlltool --input-def libsndfile-1.def --output-lib libsndfile-1.lib
196
197			Then you have to ensure the settings of gigextract's Dev-C++ project file
198			are pointing to the correct location of your local copy of libsndfile. For
199			that click in the Dev-C++ menu on "Project" -> "Project Options". Then
200			click on the tab "Parameter" and make sure the path to "libsndfile-1.lib"
201			in the "Linker" list view is correct. Then click on the tab "Directories"
202			and then on the tab "Include Directories" and make sure the path to
203			libsndfile points to the correct location there as well.
204
205			After that you should finally be able to compile "gigextract" by clicking
206			on "Compile" in the Dev-C++ menu. After compilation succeeded, you can
207			find the "gigextract.exe" file in the "win32" directory.
208
209	schoenebeck	923	Test Cases
210			==========
211			The libgig sources come with a tiny console application which allows to
212			automatically test libgig's functions on your system. This test
213			application is not compiled by default, you have to compile it explicitly
214			with the following commands on the console (cppunit has to be installed):
215
216			cd src/testcases
217			make libgigtests
218
219			and then run the test application from the same directory with:
220
221			./libgigtests
222
223	schoenebeck	859	License
224			=======
225	schoenebeck	2572	libgig and its tools are released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
226	schoenebeck	859
227	schoenebeck	2572	libakai and its tools are released under the GNU Lesser General Public (LGPL).
228			Due to its different license model the Akai support part is built as separate
229			DLL (.so) file.
230
231	schoenebeck	186	API Documentation
232			=================
233	schoenebeck	859	If you have Doxygen installed you can generate the API documentation by
234			running 'make docs' in the sources' top level directory. The API
235			documentation will be generated in the 'doc' subdirectory.
236	schoenebeck	2
237	schoenebeck	11	Patches
238			=======
239	schoenebeck	923	If you have bug fixes or improvements, your patches are always welcome!
240	schoenebeck	11	Send them either directly to me or to the LinuxSampler developer's mailing
241			list <linuxsampler-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.
242
243	schoenebeck	923	Bugs
244			====
245			Please use http://bugs.linuxsampler.org to check and report possible bugs.
246			You might also try to run the "Test Cases" coming with libgig (see above),
247			especially in case you are running on an odd system.
248
249	schoenebeck	2543	Trademarks
250			==========
251	schoenebeck	2572	Tascam, Gigasampler, GigaStudio, KORG, Trinity, Triton, OASYS, M3, Kronos
252			and Akai are trademarks of their respective owners.
253	schoenebeck	2543
254	schoenebeck	11	Credits
255			=======
256	schoenebeck	2543	The initial library (Gigasampler part) was based on the reverse engineering
257			effort of Paul Kellett and Ruben van Royen. We owe current support for the
258	schoenebeck	2572	Gigasampler v3/v4 format to Andreas Persson. Please also have a look at the
259			ChangeLog for all those who contributed.
260	schoenebeck	11
261	schoenebeck	2572	Akai support files are a ported version of S�bastien M�trot's libakai. The
262			original libakai only supported Mac and Windows. This forked version of
263			libakai now also supports Linux and other POSIX compliant operating systems
264	schoenebeck	2778	as well and does not have a dependency to libngl as the original libakai had.
265	schoenebeck	2572
266	schoenebeck	2785	The SoundFont 2 file format C++ classes were written by Grigor Iliev.
267
268	schoenebeck	2572	Thanks to all of you for your great work!
269
270	schoenebeck	2	Christian Schoenebeck <cuse@users.sourceforge.net>