
FAQ
====

- q: Can you provide binaries of SoundTracker?

a: I could, but I won't :) At least not at the current stage of
development. If one version doesn't compile, please report the bug,
including the output of configure or make or whatever fails. It is
usually fixed in the next version.


- q: SoundTracker crashes as soon as I start it or as I press a button
in its window, giving weird X errors.

a: RTFM. You're still using libc5. You need thread-safe X libraries.


- q: The sound output is quite choppy.

a1: Increase size of mixer buffer in the Preferences section.

a2: Disable double buffering. This doesn't look exactly nice, but
relieves your CPU from a lot of hard work (this depends on the
graphics card and X server you are using).

a3: Run SoundTracker as root. The mixer thread will increase its
priority then. This should help as well, but using root privileges for
ordinary applications is not good.


- q: I can't play notes on my keyboard, or the keys seem to be
misplaced.

a: I employ some wild hack in order to circumvent the necessity for
the user to set the keys manually. This works well with the XFree X
servers and I expect it to work with every other server in the world,
provided it uses a sane internal key numbering scheme. If it doesn't
work on your X server, please provide me with more details.


- q: Will you support ALSA?

a: Yes, I will. I just didn't have time to have a look at it and I
think finishing the core features of ST is more important.


- q: What about MIDI support?

a: I don't have any MIDI equipment, so I couldn't test MIDI-related
code, even if I wrote it. Okay, there is a possibility to receive MIDI
input from other applications running on the computer, but at the
moment I have other priorities anyway.


- q: Why did you choose the XM format instead of the IT format?

a: Primarily because XM is all what I need in order to make music.
But that doesn't mean that the program couldn't be expanded in the
future towards other formats. Indeed I have some very wild ideas in
mind. I just want to get a basic XM tracker working first.
