OK, now to the next important thing

     SEX !  ,-)

Oops - wrong movie - goto alt.binaries.pictures... Let´s talk about DECODING instead what is as sexy as well ,-)


Some basics...

When you go to a.b.s.m you do this with a browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer or with a special news client like Forté [Free] Agent or News XPress - or you'll use the build-in news functions of your browser like with Netscape´s Communicator or MSIE 4.x and MS-Mail & News or Outlook Express. All of this will be reffered to as "news clients" in the following desciptions.

MIDIs are posted in a.b.s.m as attachments, so the news client will show you an icon at the end of the mail. Under normal circumstances you'll double click on this icon and the MIDI will play with the player that's assigned to the file type ".MID" - if not, the operating system will give you an error message telling you about the missing association and you can define the player to use. How this is done depends on the operating system you´re running - have a look at the dox how to associate a file type with an application. Sometimes you can´t play a MIDI directly out off the news client via double click - you´ll then have to right click on the icon and choose commands like "Save as..." or "Launch attachment..." from a menue. After saving an attachment you may then use the File Manager or Explorer to locate the file and start it with a double click. Launching an attachment is mostly like double clicking on the icon - the news client tries to figure out, which player is associated with the attachment, saves the MIDI temporarly and then starts the player.

Under ugly circumstances the news client is unable to detect an attachment due to a missing association or because he don´t understands the "MIME Type" or "Content Type" of the attachment. In this cases there´s no icon displayed or you´ll see a lot of scrappy chars at the end of the mail. When someone posts a MIDI as attachment to a.b.s.m, his posting application inserts a note about the MIME or Content Type at the beginning of the attachment. This looks like "Conten-Type: audio/midi" or "Content-Type: crescendo/music". If your browser or newws client doesn´t shows attachment correctly, they are mostly posted (or mailed) with "Content-Type: crescendo/music" - but the browsers only understand "Conten-Type: audio/midi". The reason for this is, that the sender of the posting has installed a Plug-In named "Crescendo" for his browser. This Plug-In has some special features for playing MIDIs out off web pages. I highly recommend that you also install Crescendo for your environment - it supports all possible types of attachments, so you´ll never again have to worry about that. You´ll find and download the Plug-In at the Crescendo Homepage. Please read all the instructuions given there for the installation of the Plug-In. And please note: There are different versions of the Plug-In for several browsers. If you use Netscape und MSIE in parallel, you´ll have to install the Plug-In twice, one for each browser!

Unfortunatly the Crescendo Plug-In doens´t solves all problems - older versions of MS Mail & News and some outdated news clients still don´t display attaches correctly. In this cases you´ll have to "Save as..." the mail or posting as .TXT file to disk and use an external decoder like described in the section "Using external tools to decode" below...


UUEncode? MIME/base64?

If you have a crippled or outdated news client or an older outdated browser and there´s no attachment displayed, you´re probably out of luck ,-) To understand this you must know, that there are different methods to encode an attachment. Encoding is neccessary because there are control characters inside the files which may cause problems when sending the mail. So the files are encoded, which means that the control characters are converted into normal chars which causes no problems when they are send. One method is called "UUEncode" and the other method is called "MIME/base64". Both methods are standards on the Internet, but UUEncode is the older one, used since ages and supported by nearly every news client available. MIME/base64 is a newer standard which is not supported by every news client. Some people are telling MIME/base64 should only be used for email attachments, but that´s not correct - it is defined for all kinds of attachments and other proposes.

OK, so if there´s no attachment displayed in your news client, the reason is mostly that it don´t understand MIME/base64 as Forté Free Agent does. There are two solutions to this problem: You can use external tools - which will be explained in the next section - or you are forced to update to an uncrippled or newer client. For e.g. Forté offers a commercial version of Agent (aprox $30) which supports both encoding methods. For newer clients have a look at the well known, well sorted download sites like Jumbo or windows95.com or locate one of the Tucows sites...


Using external tools to decode

Another solution is to "Save as..." the posting with the attachment to an .TXT file and to use an external tool to decode the .TXT file. The mostly used tool is WinCode - if you are running Windows 95, i recommend that you use the Decode Shell Extension - this handy little tool installs itself as an extension for the menues poping up when you right click on a file. You'll find a new command "Decode" which does exactly that. Afterwards you´ll find the decoded MIDI in the current directory and may start it with a double click. Download it via the Tools Section below. As this tool is also recommended for AOL users, you´ll find it on that page too - click here to go there.

NOTE: This description is under construction! I´ve planed to devide it from this point into different sections, one for each browser and news client. To take each possible problem into consideration, please mail me your problems you probably have (had). To do so, click here - Thanks!

P: = Problem, S: = Solution

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