[vorbis] changes at pan.zipcon

[Nathan I. Sharfi]

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003, al goldstein wrote:

> Thanks for the Mac stuff I'll put in. Also any amplification that might make
> it easier for users.
>
> I've changed the objected parts of MP3.Readme to:
>
> "If you are interested in free music you should get ogg files.
> Ogg sounds better than mp3 at the same bitrate."
>
> > A few other random comments:
> >
> > In http://pan.zipcon.net/Windows/programs/index.html:
> > Would you consider removing everything in there except for for zinf and
> > unzip? They're all ancient and one can get more readable information from
> > elsewhere.
>
> Please supply where and I'll replace them.

http://pan.zipcon.net/Windows/programs/oggwin.txt is completely unnecessary
since winamp2 comes with the Vorbis plugin unless you install the most
stripped-down version available. No replacement needed.

oggwinamp.zip is similarly redundant.

The most recent version of Zinf for Windows is available at
http://zinf.sourceforge.net/download.php ; it's at version 2.2.1. Since it's
GPL'd, you'll need to mirror the source along with the binaries.

As I mentioned earlier, wget is available from
http://space.tin.it/computer/hherold/ . You may want to mention that your
visitors will also need to drop the SSL libs alongside wget when they drop
it into C:\bin or wherever.

> I value your help Nathan, I think you would certainly improve things.
> I am very green at this kind of publication inspite of being a "geezer".
> I possibly made the mistake of organizing things around the record
> publication list. Contrib was added for new stuff not in the original
> recordings.  It might make sense to drop that structure.
>
> The more recent additions are the result of people telling me they don't know
> how to get and play the files. The question is: what level of competence does
> one aim at?

Depends. Your first recommendation to Windows users *is* a command-line
tool. Certainly a useful skill to have, but at the same time, probably
completely foreign to most Windows users. I'd suggest Leech, but it didn't
seem to work.

One thing that I find baffling is that you seem to rely on hard-to-read text
files when you're running a web server. Have you given some thought to my
offer to rewrite your documentation? A decent file explaining the directory
structure or similar tools
(http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_autoindex.html#adddescription seems
like a useful tool) would help confuse your visitors less.

> > You have an awful lot of ancillary files; I'd suggest condensing them into
> > one well-structured HTML file that'll save your guests a lot of
> > bumbling-around time.  If you want me to write it, let me know.
> >
> > http://pan.zipcon.net/Ogg/MP3.readme, unfortunately, deserves the Xiph.Org
> > Less Wise than True Award:

By the way, http://pan.zipcon.net/MP3-MP3-NOTICE also suffers from this.

> > """
> > If you are interested in free music you should get ogg files which are not
> > commercial. Mp3 is connected to the software industry as is also to
> > Microsoft.
> > We can live without them.
> > """
> >
> > Let's take this one at a time...
> >
> >
> > "If you are interested in free music you should get ogg files"
> >
> > There's nothing particularly special about files that use Ogg; Ogg Vorbis
> > and FLAC are where the action is. Ogg is just a multimedia container.

Let me rephrase that a bit differently.

What you refer to as "Ogg" files are much better described as "Ogg Vorbis"
files. Ogg is *merely* a multimedia container format; Vorbis is the
compression codec.

What makes this a point worth belaboring is that you're not really saying
a whole lot about a particular file by calling it an "Ogg file"; there's
currently Ogg Vorbis, Ogg FLAC (though these are to be avoided due to poor
library support), and Ogg Speex files out there. Not to mention "ogm" files
and upcoming Ogg Theora files. As such, I'm asking that you refine your
speech so that you're not accidentally confusing people when they come
across "ogg" files that have no traces of Vorbis in them.

Or give me a green light to write this stuff up in one HTML file that'll
replace all the confusing little notes you have strewn over pan.

Incidentally, I'd toss /wget/, /Mac/, and  /Windows/ into a new directory
called /tools/. More logical that way, IMO.

Nathan
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