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impulsetracker/README.md

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Impulse Tracker

Eventually, maybe, a version of IT for modern x86_64 systems

Pre-Requisite Software

To build Impulse Tracker, you will need:

  • Netwide Assembler

  • GCC

  • sh

Once you have these, building IT should be just a single call to ./build

Quick File Overview

  • IT.ASM: Startup routines

  • IT_DISK.ASM: Disk IO Routines. Uses IT_D_*.INC files

  • IT_DISPL.ASM: Display routines for the Playback Screen (F5)

  • IT_EMS.ASM: EMS memory handling routines

  • IT_F.ASM: Collection of functions used by the object model

  • IT_FOUR.ASM: Fast Fourier routines. Used by the graphic equalizer (Alt-F12). Not available on all all sound cards

  • IT_G.ASM: Global key handler functions

  • IT_H.ASM: Help Module (F1)

  • IT_I.ASM: Sample list (F3) and Instrument list (F4) module

  • IT_K.ASM: Keyboard module

  • IT_L.ASM: Information line code

  • IT_M.ASM: Main message loop/dispatcher

  • IT_MDATA.ASM: Global music variable data

  • IT_MMTSR.ASM: Sample compression/decompression routines

  • IT_MOUSE.ASM: Mouse handling code

  • IT_MSG.ASM: Message editor module (Shift-F9)

  • IT_MUSIC.ASM: Module playback code. Also uses IT_M_EFF.INC

  • IT_NET.ASM: Network code

  • IT_OBJ1.ASM: UI object definitions

  • IT_PE.ASM: Pattern Editor module (F2)

  • IT_S.ASM: Screen functions, including character generation

  • IT_TUTE.ASM: Interactive Tutorial module

  • IT_VESA.ASM: VESA code for graphic equalizer

  • SWITCH.INC: High level switches for the program

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: "What are all those funny characters in the source code?"

A: I wrote the original source code using DOS characters, with characters drawing borders/boxes in comments in the source code. In the interests of posterity, I have left the code intact as it was.

Q: "Why didn't you use STRUCs or ENUMs" in your ASM source?

A: Simply because I didn't know about them at the time. I wish I did. There's a InternalDocumentation folder that I've included in the repository that details what some of the magic numbers appearing through the code might mean.

Q: "Flow in some functions seems to jump all over the place. Why?"

A: The original code was compatible all the way back to an 8086 machine. 8086 would allow you to do conditional jumps only within +/-128 bytes, so I spent too much time shuffling code around to meet this restriction. When I shifted away from this 8086 restriction, I never went back to update the code that was mutilated by it.

License

Refer to LICENSE.TXT