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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
New SID frontend released !!
Hello fellow C64 freaks!
I just wanted to let you know that there is a new SID frontend available to the public now. It has features no other SID tool offers since today:
* Support Sidplay2/w for playback
* Support TinySID for playback
* Easy access to the entire High Voltage Sid Collection
* Easy single-click interface
* Songlength database support
* Continuous play to discover SIDs unknown to you
* Playlist support with ability to add certain subsongs
* Experimental sid2midi support (sid2midi.exe not included)
* Built in search function
* Build on .NET framework 2.0 (required)
Steppe from HVSC suggested i shall promote it here. So did i. Hope you like it.
http://sidtool.drool.de/
Regards,
Madman
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CyberBrain
Administrator
Posts: |
Nice, i like the playlist thing. What i miss is to have the STIL info and pictures displayed in the GUI (as in SidBrowser). |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
I originally did the tool for my own purposes.
My mission was to listen to every SID tune in HVSC at least once.
The tool sure has a few bugs left (hence the beta version) but i am always open for suggestions :-)
I have a STIL function included, but its too slow to make use of it. I will try to make that faster for the next major release.
Any further suggestions ? Keep them coming. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
There you go. Version 0.7.5 now with STIL support :) |
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Fanta
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 26 |
that .net framework thingy sucks. i don't have it installed and it seems like i need program x and y to install it. i gave it up, too much hassle. :-( |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Im sad to hear that. Usually you only need that 1 file. I added a link to the site.
You still on Win95 or something ? You are the first having problems installing .net |
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iAN CooG
Registered: May 2002
Posts: 3137 |
Quote: that .net framework thingy sucks. i don't have it installed and it seems like i need program x and y to install it. i gave it up, too much hassle. :-(
I quote Fanta about overall suckyness of the whole thing. Tested at work (no problem for me installing .NET 2.0 there)
and all I saw is a "different" front-end for Sidplay2/w which has even more song info (cltr-p for example). No point in having another UI for a program that already has one.
Deinstalled both sidtool and net2.0. |
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Spinball
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 87 |
maybe you could add support for the vice commandline sidplayer. would be nice to use sidtool as gui for that one. |
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Steppe
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 1510 |
Man, that's really a great idea. I'd second that!
Ian Coog is kinda right, the Sidtool basically is a souped up frontend for Sidplay2/w, with presently not enough features to really stick out from the crowd of sidtools, i.e. it can't do much more than what other external programs already offer at this time (Sidbace, Sidbrowser, SidDB).
What I really like is the seamless songlength integration with the ability to just start continuous play in any directory (ah, let's see what this Fanta guy has to offer apart from his usual smash hits... ;-) ) and just let it doodle in the background.
The playlist feature is very intuitive to use, despite using a proprietary format.
Now with added search functionality (which, by all means, should be extended to search for AUTHOR or RELEASED field) and probably wider support of all kinds of players we're really getting somewhere. Keep it up, Madman!
I'm only asking for one thing: Don't make it too bloated and complex, adding things here and there, patchwork style (IIRC Sidbrowser heavily suffered from this). I really like the "lightweight" and cleaned up feeling of this program and would appreciate if it stayed like that. ;-) |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Its a frontend, as the topic stated. No more, no less :)
As with every software out there, some like it and some dont.
I dont like the sidplay2/w GUI for example. But anyway.
I will look into that Winvice thingy.
Oh and btw Steppe, the continuous Play also switches into the next directory on its own (if there is any)
So you could basically turn on continuous play and listen to the entire HVSC in one session. Unless you starve halfway through :)
Adding search for STIL info ? I have the STIL in RAM when needed since 0.7.5 but displaying the results in the way i do with search now could be difficulty. Will look into that too. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Well the Winvice support works, only problem is, there is no option to start Winvice running the PSID tune with a certain subsong playing, so continuous play will not work with subtune support on winvice, also you may not be able to bookmark a subtune different then the default starting song.
Unless the workaround i have on my mind will work or there is another way telling winvice to play a SID (without using PSID) which i dont know about. |
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Spinball
Registered: Sep 2002
Posts: 87 |
vice has build in sid playback "x64 -vsid filename.sid" but i have no idea how to change the subsong. Hoxs64 has build in sidplay too. And some guys claim it has the best 8510 emulation around.
p.s.: great you are working on vice integration |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Oh thanks a bunch for that Info. I used PSID to crate a PRG and then launch vice with that PRG.
The -vsid parameter is not listed in the commandline list.
Will check that out right now :-) |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Well, im done with Vice support.
(Edit: Means you can download that from the Website)
I suggest to set some settings in the options first.
By default i set vice to what i find in the Sid header.
(I hope i get the info right there) |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
For your Info:
Beta 0.9.0 released.
Added advanced search to search the SID Header info
(as Steppe suggested)
Added PlayList sorting
Now using TinySID 0.996 Final
SIDPlay2/W default again for subsong support
http://sidtool.drool.de |
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Vai
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 50 |
I like the front-end, nice way to search through the collection, But I like a few corrections.
- Remember which player to the play the sid's;
- On a second monitor the mousepointer get's jumpy after playing a sid, the x coordinate is reset to the outmost left of the second screen, it's annoying.
- Sometimes when you select a subtune it is not played, you have to go to another subtune and try again, or stop -> play. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Thanks for your feedback!
- Remembering Player used - noted for next update.
- Cant reproduce that bug on a single-monitor desktop, sorry :-( I guess thats a .net framework bug, i dont alter nor question the mouse coordinates in any way. Will try to lend a 2nd monitor and look into that.
- I noted, that sometimes the sidplayer is not launched. I havent found out yet, was causes this. But doubleclicking the tune in the SID List should re-start the current selected (sub)song |
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
Hi!
Nice work! :)
Could I suggest more 'search' options, like look for the keywords on the STIL comments? I think it would be useful to find covers and such. Also enabling the STIL box to be resized will become handy when showing large texts.
I got a 'crash'. It does happens sometimes when doing a search:
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at SidTool.Sidtool.HVSCFolderView_AfterSelect(Object sender, TreeViewEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.TreeView.OnAfterSelect(TreeViewEventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.TreeView.TvnSelected(NMTREEVIEW* nmtv)
at System.Windows.Forms.TreeView.WmNotify(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.TreeView.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
I can paste the whole error text if you wish (I've removed the 'assemblies' listing to keep it short).
Regards. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Hi tora!
Thanks for your feedback.
I have uploaded V0.9.1 which includes STIL searching support.
I fixed a few bugs too and resized the STIL info a little.
Things get a little more complex now with all this features added :) I usually try to play around with the tool a certain while prior uploading an update, but one cant imagine what other people try to do with it ;)
If that crash keeps coming up, please give me some more info:
- what kind of search ? (Simple, advanced or stil)
- What did you search for ?
- Any prior searches which may interfere ?
Mad
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
Hi Madman!
Wow, that was fast! :D Thank you!
I've downloaded the new version, but that bug still appears. The main problem is that I can't reproduce it, seems to be pretty random.
For example, launch Sidtool, do a simple search for 'world', and that bug appeared. I quit the app, launch it again, repeat the search but the bug doesn't appears. Also I did several searches and seemed to work fine, but then again the bug showed after a while. Trying to repeat the same steps didn't make the bug to show.
The only thing I can say is that seems to be related with the composers list being updated.
Also I've found another bug but this one can be reproduced:
- Launch sidtool.
- Do a STIL search with the keyword 'Amiga'.
- See what happens ;)
I've uploaded the screenshot of that later bug, and the text of the previous one, zipped in one file here:
sidtool_crash_info.zip
I hope it helps. If you want me to try anything in particular or need more info just tell me!
Regards.
PD: I'm running on a (non-explosive) dell laptop, using windows xp home sp2, have the .net runtimes for 1.1 and 2.0 installed, and the hvsids is the latest (release 45). |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Yep, thats info i can work with. Thx :)
There are a few entries in the STIL, that contain general composer info. Thats with:
/VARIOUS/A-F/Eeben_Aleksi/
COMMENT: Well known composer on the Amiga, under the handle "Heatbeat".
In my tool i search the comment for amiga. i get a hit here, therefore i use the upper line to load the SID. But the Upper line has no filename, which caused the error when searching for Amiga. And i bet there are some more entries like this. Never noted those before.
I fixed that bug and re-uploaded the 0.9.1.
The bug in simple search doesnt appear for me it seems, i searched 10 mins straight for all kind of stuff but nothing happend. Did you use any continuous play before the bug in simple search appeared ? I will search on... :) |
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Steppe
Registered: Jan 2002
Posts: 1510 |
I'm getting crashes with strange error message too once in a while, just so you know. Never was able to reproduce it though, so I didn't mention it yet. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Well if its of any help, only use it with HVSC 45
Any other folder may not have the Songlength.txt at the desired place, or STIL isnt located or missing etc. etc.
which may lead to curious behaviour of the programm.
Any crash i encounter i will hunt down. |
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
Hi again!
I managed to capture on video that odd bug, and in two different situations ;)
You can download a zip containing the videos and the text of the error description here:
bug_captures.zip
Also both situations can be reproduced.
The second video what does not show is that I accidentally 'dragged' the mouse before selecting another composer. Also you can get that situation if you select a composer with the mouse, but then you use the keyboard to move to another.
I hope this can help you to fix it :)
Regards. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Wow, amazing. Visual proof of lame coding LOL just kidding :)
These videos help a lot. I note on the first bug, he actually displays the following tune, but for some reason crashes then instead of playing it. Also your Sidlist gets cleared when you enable STIL. These infos help me localize the buggy part of the code.
What did you do these videos with ? That tool may come in handy later.
Believe me or not: For some weird reason these bugs dont appear here on my machine. Then again i allready worked a few more bugs out, which may have caused these crashes. Maybe. Please download http://sidtool.drool.de/ReleaseTEST.zip
(its in verbose mode, so dont get scared on the message it couldnt find sidtool.ini on first launch)
If you still get these crashes with that version, i have 2 suspects:
One i eleminated in the test version, that is if the tool cant determine which node aka composer is selected. I set that to the first one then to prevent the crash.
The second suspect must be the continuous Play feature.
Can you try the first one again without enabling STIL ?
The second one makes no sense at all for me at the moment...
Thx a lot for your effort helping me sorting this crap out :)
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
Hi Madman!
I couldn't reproduce any of the problems with that version. Looks like you defeated those bugs! Congratulations! :D
The software I used to capture the screen is Camstudio. You can find it here:
www.camstudio.org
And I'm pleased to help you as I find this tool very handy :D |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Yay, i'm glad to hear that :o)
I will release the current version later today then.
If any other problems occur, let me know.
One last note: The tool is meant to be used with the HVSC only so far. The HVSC should also be unaltered, means no SIDs, testfiles or folders should be deleted in the HVSC.
Otherwise the integrity of the data may become corrupt.
Means, STIL search could bring up files you have deleted, leading to a crash.
This especially may happen if used to browse the HVSC46 beta folder or some personal SID folder, which has no STIL file for example. Or no Songlength.txt.
I will try to get these Problems solved in the following versions.
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Vai
Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 50 |
nevermind the bug I mentioned with the 2nd monitor, I've tried the 0.9 now and it doesn't occur anymore. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
great, thanks for the info.
i guess we may have a 1.0 RC1 here then. :D
Anyway, i put it up as 0.9.2 now.
I have some more things i like to add, some suggested by testers: :
- Auto switch to sidplay2 if continuous Play with subsongs enabled
- Advanced search: Add buttons to narrow fields being searched in (sometimes gets too many results)
- Make title in Advanced Search results clickable to order the results
- Remember last used Player
- Save PlayList temporary and reload temporary PL
- Auto find SID in HVSC when clicked on in Advanced Search
Did i miss anything ?
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
0.9.4 is out.
Fixed like a dozend bugs Yodelking pointed out. Thx dude!
Added SLDB override support on Steppes request.
New Playlist features (old one still compatible, but that wont help much if hvsc46 is out i guess)
Now adds current _playing_ song to Playlist instead of selected one from HVSC. Nice for adding search results. :)
This and that...
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Tchad
Registered: Jul 2004
Posts: 8 |
Good first impression, especially how the HVSC is handled.
Anyway, maybe this is silly but I have this dream about being able to scrobble SIDs on the www.last.fm site. Basically, this is a site that keeps track of what music you listen to by letting you download a plug-in to your favourite desktop audio-player. By transmitting the metadata of the song, it collects listening statistics and gives you recommendations accordingly.
There's loads more to it than this, but I hope you get the basic idea. However, there is AFAIK no SID player around that supports scrobbling. Foobar with a SID plug-in has made the best attempt, but it gets confused about the fact that there are no well defined songlengths.
Madman:
Have a look at
http://www.last.fm/tools/downloads
and in particular
svn://svn.audioscrobbler.net/ScrobSub
and see if this is something you'd want to consider. Would be much appreciated ;-)
The word on the street is that all there is to do is to consider four player events (start, stop, pause and resume) and just call the appropriate method in the downloadable (if you'd want to install SVN) sourcecode.
Cheers,
Mattias - www.last.fm/user/gratishora
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
This is going better each day! :D Good work! :)
I've another tiny bug to report.
When pressing '<' or '>' to select next/previous subsongs, sometimes sidplay2 won't be started. I've also tried combinations of checking/unchecking the restart and hide options.
When sidplay2 doesn't start, just pressing stop and then play makes it play the selected subtune.
EDIT: It also happens with TinySid player. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Hmm that is some idea that came to my mind too, having people submit their sessiondata to some site.
But i'm not sure if there is enough audience for such a feature ? How many of the people on lastfm are into SID music ?
Songlength still is a problem, even for SidTool, as there are quite a bunch of SIDs that have no songlengths defined. I use 120 seconds then.
I may consider that for an upcoming version past 1.0, depending on the feedback i get about this. I'd like to make a MOD-Port for Amiga music too, as soon as i learn about some comandline-capable MOD-Player, or even add MOD support to SIDtool and i guess the audience will like triple.
But to be honest, for now i will be glad to have the tool finished and stable as it is now. It has more features by now than i ever considered adding :) And all these bugs drive me somewhat nuts atm :-P |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Quote: This is going better each day! :D Good work! :)
I've another tiny bug to report.
When pressing '<' or '>' to select next/previous subsongs, sometimes sidplay2 won't be started. I've also tried combinations of checking/unchecking the restart and hide options.
When sidplay2 doesn't start, just pressing stop and then play makes it play the selected subtune.
EDIT: It also happens with TinySid player.
Yes, thats something that happens now and then.
No clue why at the moment. I use the same function to start the SID, no matter wether you click the song or hit the play button, as its inside the SIDtune class i made. I will look into that soon ofcourse.
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Yay. HVSC 46 is out.
So i released 0.9.5 which has option to convert your HVSC45 PlayList to HVSC46 paths.
Also added random play and now saving window size and column width of search results and Playlist.
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SIDWAVE
Account closed
Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238 |
Bug: when i (simple) search for "rambones", it goes to /musicians/w/ and shows only this one path.
To get back to top level, i have then to search for "" (nothing).
Strange.
Bug: if touching anything while its generating search index, it hangs.
Unknown..: in my dir /musicians/r/rambones/ the top 4 files are the newest, but the list is not alphasorted. is it sorted on date ?
Bug: shows STIL entries 3 times after another..
Bug: does not show global STIL comment!
Bug: sometimes, when clicking a tune in the "advanced search window", the STIL for that tune does not show!
No possibility to resize the STIL view ?
BUG; sometimes, a tune is started 2 times! so you have 2 copies of the tune playing! only seen this with vice..
After all this, still a nice proggy!
I love the sound quality of VICE :) compared to..
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
-I allready added global STIL support. (Not released yet tho)
-No way for me to alter ordering of sidlist afaik.
-3 times the same still info ? Nobody noted that before...
-Building SearchDB is hella slow since 46. But its not a primary task, as you only do that once per HVSC update usually. It most likely doesnt even hang, its still building searchDB.txt. check filesize in explorer.
The rest:
i will look into those.
But i will slow things a bit now. I dont know why, but the more features i add, the more people complain about the sidplayer not stopping properly. I will have to do some code cleanup now and check this bug at first.
Also im a little bit tired of that tool right now, as i work on it like a month now on a daily base. I may take a day off or two, sometimes ideas appear from the distance, or things you didnt notice a while point out on a kinda fresh approach.
Yet your reports will not vanish unheard :)
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tora
Account closed
Registered: Jun 2005
Posts: 6 |
Resting is good! :)
There's no point on getting exhausted, this is something you should enjoy, not suffer ;D
So take your time and work on it when you feel like it! |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Well, the rest is somewhat over, 0.9.6 is out.
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
And another update: Thanks to Peter Sanden, who helped me track down and finally eleminate a bug, which did not stop a SID after you doubleclicked on a Sid in the SIDlist, 0.9.6.1 is out. Only 1 major bug left to 1.0 :) |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
'lo!
Since no more bugs were reported: 1.0 RC1 out.
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Well, i made a fast and quick port of SIDtool so it can play Amiga .MODs and .XMs and .FTs
Maybe not the right place to post on a C64 site, but i thought someone might be interested. |
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Domey
Account closed
Registered: Dec 2003
Posts: 8 |
Apparently the homepage is hacked at the moment.. :( |
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Jakuchu
Account closed
Registered: May 2005
Posts: 3 |
Quote: Man, that's really a great idea. I'd second that!
Ian Coog is kinda right, the Sidtool basically is a souped up frontend for Sidplay2/w, with presently not enough features to really stick out from the crowd of sidtools, i.e. it can't do much more than what other external programs already offer at this time (Sidbace, Sidbrowser, SidDB).
What I really like is the seamless songlength integration with the ability to just start continuous play in any directory (ah, let's see what this Fanta guy has to offer apart from his usual smash hits... ;-) ) and just let it doodle in the background.
The playlist feature is very intuitive to use, despite using a proprietary format.
Now with added search functionality (which, by all means, should be extended to search for AUTHOR or RELEASED field) and probably wider support of all kinds of players we're really getting somewhere. Keep it up, Madman!
I'm only asking for one thing: Don't make it too bloated and complex, adding things here and there, patchwork style (IIRC Sidbrowser heavily suffered from this). I really like the "lightweight" and cleaned up feeling of this program and would appreciate if it stayed like that. ;-)
Sums it up pretty well, I like the continuous-feature which lets me just run the frontend in the background and do the work for me. |
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Madman
Registered: Jan 2007
Posts: 34 |
Quote: Apparently the homepage is hacked at the moment.. :(
Yeah, it indeed is.
I dont feel like wasting my time with hosting the tool when there are evil people out there :)
Honestly, i dont have the time for such updates. Besides that i get a shitload of spam at the domain, and besides the Sidtool site i dont have any webpages online any more anyway.
So i will cancel my webhosting contract, save the money and spam, and upload the tool to csdb. I also sent the sourcecode to some guy at a german C64 forum, so it wont get lost.
Edit: Cant upload it, filesize exceeds limit
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