VOGONS


First post, by puttesnutte

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Is there anyone here who would like to whip up a little Windows program which does the same thing as the "mixer /listmidi" command in DOSBox? I have not found any other program which provides this particular information, and it feels a bit silly that you have to use an emulator to get it. I'm not a programmer but it seems to me it should be an easy thing to do. It would be useful with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Reply 1 of 8, by Dominus

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Yes, it should be easy. It might even be one of the SDL test programs. Other programs provide the same dunction, for example Exult (and I think ScummVM in some fasion).
But why not use Dosbox for that? It's so easy and small already and you can have a shortcut with just that function 😉

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Reply 2 of 8, by puttesnutte

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I do use DOSBox for that! But it would be even easier if I had a tool which only did that! 😀
I would do it myself if I knew how. I have some very basic programming knowledge, but looking at the source code just makes my head hurt.

Reply 4 of 8, by collector

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You could just start DOSBox with the following in a conf file:

[autoexec]
mount c .
c:
mixer /listmidi>MIDILIST.TXT
exit

It will create a MIDILIST.TXT file with the MIDI devices listed in whatever folder you have the conf file. DOSBox will open briefly and close.

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Reply 5 of 8, by puttesnutte

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That's what I do, except that I don 't write it to a text file, and don't have "exit" at the end.
I don't really see what I would gain by writing to a text file though.

Reply 6 of 8, by collector

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The only real purpose for this that I can see is to just determine the number of the device you want to use in the conf file. Most MIDI programs will determine what your MIDI devices are and would not need this. Paired with a batch file or shortcut it does make it one double click to get the list. I only suggested this quick and dirty method because you said you had limited programming skills.

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Reply 7 of 8, by puttesnutte

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I mostly use this just to check that all MIDI drivers are installed and working, and that device 0 is the right one (since that is the one used by programs which have no MIDI device selector built-in). Every now and then MIDI devices disappear from the list without any apparent reason, and I have to reinstall them. Most often it's the Munt windows drivers which does this, but it also have happened with Coolsoft VirtualMIDIdriver.

I can continue using DOSBox like I use to. I just thought it would be an easy thing to pick out that particular part from DOSBox and make a stand-alone program of it. If you know how to do it, that is.