Monthly Archives: December 2008

Winamp Scripts Version 1.0 Released

Today comes the release of the Winamp Scripts version 1.0. For those that haven’t tried these scripts, here are just a few of the features found in the scripts:

* Complete access to the Winamp Main Window, Equalizer Window, Play List Window, Drop Box Window, the Auto-Tagger window and the file information window.

* Automatic update checking to check for new versions of the script.

* A Script Preferences dialog to control all settings of the Winamp scripts.

* A Winamp Script Hotkey Manager to allow you to adjust all of the shortcuts supplied by the Winamp scripts (and their are literally hundreds of keys implemented in the scripts).

* The Winamp Messages dialog allows you to control all of the messages spoken by the Winamp scripts by Window-Eyes menu level (or verbosity).

* A detailed Title Dialog showing all information about the current track in an accessible manner.

* Control the automatic speaking of track titles (No Track Titles spoken, All Track Titles spoken, Only speak previous track and next track titles, Only speak Winamp title transitions (previous and next track ignored)).

* Control what time information is spoken by the press of a key (System Time, Total Track Time, Elapsed Track Time, Remaining Track Time).

* Relative time jump control. Adjust down to the minute and second the amount of time to jump either forward or backward.

* Keys to adjust Volume and Panning settings. The Script Preferences dialog allows you to pre-define the percentages the volume keys set the volume to.

* Speak the volume percentage as you raise and lower the volume with the up and down arrow keys (this can be turned off).

* Speak the current position of the track as you move left and right within the track with the arrow keys (this can be turned off). The P key can also be used to speak the current position within the current track.

* Timed bookmarks. Mark your position within a track that is playing for later retrieval. Keys are implemented to allow you to move back and forward among the timed bookmarks. In addition, 10 hotkeys are available to jump to the first 10 timed bookmarks (or the 10 remaining bookmarks).

* A Time Bookmark Manager exists to allow you to manage all of the bookmarks.

* Automatic Timed looping bookmarks. Set the starting and ending position and start the range playing. The range will play until a key is pressed is invoked to continue playback or to stop the looping bookmark.

* Winamp presets. Think of this as keys to launch bookmarks within your Winamp Bookmark list. This is like buttons on your car radio. Up to 20 presets can be defined and many dialogs are available for setting, listing and managing your presets.

* The Winamp Bookmark manager allows you to launch bookmarks from a convenient dialog. Launch Winamp bookmarks, External Bookmarks from the authors collection of bookmarks (and user submitted bookmarks), and launch recently heard links if available.

* Complete management capabilities of the Winamp play list.

* Jump to the track currently playing in the play list.

* Jump to a track within the play list by number or selection using a progress bar.

* Added a key to reliably right click on the highlighted track without having to use the mouse keys to find the track and right click on it. This is required for many of Winamp’s functions within the play list.

* Color training mode within the Play List window if tracks are not speaking as you arrow around. The Winamp Scripts are intelligent enough to scan and determine the right color combinations for highlight tracking.

* Get the number of tracks in the play list with a press of a key and also get the current location in the play list with another key.

* Speak changes in the Equalizer as keys are pressed.

* Moving left and right will adjust the balance of your speakers. Hear your balance percentage as keys are pressed.

* Winamp Alarm functionality. Launch a track or stream at a scheduled time. Winamp does not have to be running for this functionality to work.

* and much more.

Here is a comprehensive list of changes sense the last release:

1. Corrected logic in TitleWatch to improve buffering when streaming and not hearing constant speech.

2. The Winamp Messages (F12 key) dialog has been completely revamped. You can now create messages per Menu Verbosity Level. The dialog is now contained in a treeview and all messages are sorted in alphibetical order. Eliminated WinampScript and Key Describer messages from appearing in the list.

3. The Jump to Track in Play List (Control+Shift+J) key has been enhanced. If Track 1 or the last track in the play list is selected then we will move to those using Home and End respectively. In addition, the jump process will move to the top or bottom and then move if it will get you there quicker. Basically, speed improvements in Play List jumping. The actual jump dialog also now has an edit control which will allow you to type in a number to jump to. The jump button was made the default so you can simply press enter to jump.

4. Many new keyboard enhancements:

Up and Down arrow keys now report the percentage of the volume in a track.

Left and Right arrow keys in the Equalizer now report the balance percentage of the speakers as you move.

The P key in the main Winamp window now speaks the percentage or time elapsed you are in within a specific track.

Left and Right arrow keys in the Main Winamp window and in the Play List window now speak the current position within a track (either by percentage or time elapsed).

5. The Winamp Script Preferences Menu (Control+Shift+P) now allows you to adjust the speaking percentages and time of these new keys if you don’t like this new behavior.

6. The 4 Volume adjusting keys have been enhanced to allow the user to pre-define their percentages when pressed. The defaults are: 0, 33, 66 and 100 percent. These can be adjusted in the Script Preferences dialog.

7. The Up and Down Arrow keys while held down have been greatly sped up within the Play List. This does not include Alt-Up and Alt-Down arrow key movement.

8. Added a Alt-A key to start auto tagging in the File Information window.

9. Context-sensitive help is now available in the File Information window.

10. When adding ACB Radio Bookmarks we will now insure both the Name and URL get updated in case you have already added the bookmarks and their URL locations have changed.

11. Added the ability to see items in the authors Winamp Bookmark library from the Bookmark Manager (F2). If enabled in the Script Preferences dialog (Control+Shift+P) you can expand the External Bookmarks link and look at the bookmarks contained in that list.

12. Added logic to convert the Custom XML strings to the new naming format.

13. Added a new CheckXMLIntegrity report mainly used for development purposes.

14. Cleaned up many Key Describer issues.

15. Renamed and cleaned up Key Describer messages within the XML file.

16. Adjusted the Hotkey Manager to handle the newly renamed Key Describer xml strings.

17. Made the Hotkey Manager ignore the new Event Key type in the INI file.

18. Added more error handling in the child focus procedure dealing with overlapped windows.

19. Eliminated registry reads for the Winamp Global script for a number of reasons. The only catch to this is that the Winamp script must be launched at least once for the Winamp Global script to function completely.

20. Added more error reporting for the emails sent to the author for troubleshooting purposes in the future and eliminated unicode issues with the INI file in the email reporting.

This new version can be obtained from the GW Micro Script Central web site.

Literally thousands of hours have gone into the development of these scripts. The scripts remain free but donation links on our web site and a Donate button is contained in the Winamp Script Preferences dialog if you wish to contribute toward future scripting developments.

I would like to personally thank the many people who have contributed feedback toward this scripting project. It is sincerely appreciated.