DOS ain't dead

SBMIX questions (Developers)

posted by rr  , Berlin, Germany, 13.01.2025, 21:31

> As per [1] Sound Blaster Pro sports CT1345 mixer chip which
> registers differ from what SBMIX is changing, yet SBMIX claims to target
> Sound Blaster Pro and compatibles.
>
> I have no Sound Blaster Pro in my possession to check this myself, but
> according to [1] SBMIX shouldn't work for Sound Blaster Pro. So I wonder if
> it's just a vague usage of Sound Blaster Pro term in SBMIX documentation or
> [1] is not a dependable source of information.

I have no idea. I'm no regular SBMIX user and don't own an original SB Pro, although it was my first sound card in the nineties. (Mine had the Panasonic CD-ROM interface, IIRC.)
SBMIX was written by Michal. I did some testing and bugfixing only.

> Since SBMIX is such a nice tiny program, I thought it would be fun to
> reimplement it in pure assembly to see how smaller it would be comparing to
> a Pascal implementation. It turned out to be about 2K bytes (so 4x times
> smaller than the unpacked version and 2x times smaller than the packed

Very nice.

IIRC, we (Michal and me) didn't want to go the "fully in asm" route, because HLL constructs and an existing RTL make a life a little easier and we both love(d) Pascal.

> one). I'm planning to publish it somewhere on the internet and want to ask
> your opinion on how to do it properly.

How about https://codeberg.org/?

> 1. Should I change the name of the utility? From one hand, the command-line
> interface is completely the same, so it can be used as a drop-in
> replacement. From the other hand, it can cause confusion. Although, AFAIK
> it was a common practice in DOS times to reuse the same name (probably due
> to lack of information).

Um, I tend to say Yes to a different name.
Maybe "SBMIXA" or "SBMIX/A"? I'm very creative at names, I know.

> 2. Should I mention BTTR Software in the command help screen? (Like
> 'Copyright (c) 1997-2020 BTTR Software'). The only source code reused is
> ASM routines for changing SB registers which are itself seem to be taken
> from some SB programming guide, but the look and command-line interface are
> blatantly stolen from you.

I'm not sure, what would be appropriate and legally correct.
Maybe: "Based on SBMIX, Copyright (c) 1997-2020 BTTR Software."

> 3. Should I stick to 'MODIFIED' BSD LICENSE? I'd rather change it to the
> MIT license, but won't if you object.

What's wrong with the 'MODIFIED' BSD LICENSE?

As I said before, I'm not the original author. But as Michal is missing for several years now (), I guess, he would be fine with the MIT license.

> Before I reimplemented it in assembly, I made a patch for the Pascal
> version which adds PC Speaker volume changing feature. If you are
> interested, I'd be more than happy to share it with you.

If I find some motivation and time some day, is it okay to include your patch in an official SBMIX release?

> Thank you for your software and this forum (I'm a long-time reader).

Thanks for spending your time with us and sharing your thoughts and knowledge!

> [1]
> https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2018/readings/hardware/SoundBlaster.pdf

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Complete thread:

• SBMIX questions - unterwulf, 15.11.2024, 11:27 (Developers)
  • SBMIX questions - Zyzzle, 15.11.2024, 11:58
    • SBMIX questions - unterwulf, 15.11.2024, 13:28
  • SBMIX questions - ecm, 15.11.2024, 15:59
  • SBMIX questions - rr, 13.01.2025, 21:31