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stilview

Leandro Nini edited this page Jun 8, 2021 · 2 revisions

NAME stilview - command-line program to help you retrieve the entries stored in STIL.

SYNOPSIS stilview [-b] [-d] [-e entry] [-f field] [-i] [-l HVSC base dir] [-m] [-o] [-s] [-t tune number]

stilview {[-h] | [-v]}

DESCRIPTION STILView is a command-line driven program to help you retrieve the entries stored in STIL fast and accurately. STILView uses the STIL C++ class heavily to do this, and in fact, the primary purpose of this command-line program is to test that class (which is, BTW, used in many GUI-based SID players, most notably in SIDPlay for Windows and XSIDPLAY for Unix systems). However, it is user-friendly enough to be used by non-programmers, too.

GLOSSARY Some terms and STIL-related lingo in alphabetical order:

BUG ENTRY
    There exists a special file in HVSC (/DOCUMENTS/BUGlist.txt) that
    lists all known bugs in SID tunes in HVSC. See the top of that file
    for details about what's in it exactly. A BUG entry is like a STIL
    entry, but it is contained in this BUGlist.txt file.

FIELD
    The smallest piece of information in a STIL entry. Currently valid
    field names are NAME, TITLE, ARTIST and COMMENT.

FILE-GLOBAL COMMENT
    A special COMMENT field in a STIL entry for a multi-tune SID file
    that refers to the whole SID, not just one tune in it. These usually
    contain general information about the SID file itself.

    Example:

      /Hubbard_Rob/Gerry_the_Germ.sid
      COMMENT: In Rob's own demo of this music, the tunes are named after the levels
               in the original game.
      (#1)
        TITLE: Lungs
      (#2)
        TITLE: Kidney
      (#7)
        TITLE: End

HVSC
    High Voltage SID Collection. If you don't know what this is, you
    downloaded the wrong program. :)

HVSC-RELATIVE PATHNAME
    The pathname plus filename of a SID file that can be found in your
    HVSC, relative to the base directory of HVSC. It is always in
    UNIX-style format, eg.: /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid refers to Rob
    Hubbard's Commando.sid file within HVSC (which may actually be found
    as C:\Music\HVSC\Hubbard_Rob\Commando.sid on your Windows PC).

MULTI-TUNE ENTRY
    A STIL entry that is referring to a SID file that has many tunes in
    it. Each tune might have its own STIL block, which are separated by
    a so-called tune designation in the form of "(#x)", where x = the
    tune number. Consult the STIL.FAQ in HVSC for a detailed
    description.

    Example:

      /Hubbard_Rob/Gerry_the_Germ.sid
      COMMENT: In Rob's own demo of this music, the tunes are named after the levels
               in the original game.
      (#1)
        TITLE: Lungs
      (#2)
        TITLE: Kidney
      (#7)
        TITLE: End

SECTION
    A part of STIL that belongs to one composer (ie. every STIL entry
    referring to SID files that are in one subdirectory in HVSC).
    Sections in STIL are always separated by a line in the form of: "###
    Composer's name ########".

SECTION-GLOBAL COMMENT
    A special STIL entry that refers not to an individual SID file, but
    to a whole subdirectory. These usually contain info about the
    composer himself, or about all the SID file he/she ever composed,
    and are always indexed in the form of "/Subdir/" (note the trailing
    slash!).

    Example:

      /Hubbard_Rob/
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
               Hubbard's own comments are denoted by (RH).

SINGLE-TUNE ENTRY
    A STIL entry that has no tune designation in it in the form of
    "(#x)", where x is a number. (Note, that a single-tune entry might
    still refer to a SID file which has many tunes in it, ie. when a
    single-tune entry has nothing but a COMMENT field in it!)

    Example:

      /Hubbard_Rob/Chain_Reaction.sid
      TITLE: Zoolook (remix) [from Zoolook]
      ARTIST: Jean Michel Jarre

    Another example (the SID this is refering to has many tunes in it!):

      /Barrett_Steve/Magic_Land_Dizzy.sid
      COMMENT: Also used in the game "Wacky Darts" (c) 1990 Codemasters.

STIL
    SID Tune Information List, essentially a text-file database that can
    be found in your HVSC in the /DOCUMENTS/ subdirectory.

STIL ENTRY
    All of the pieces of information in STIL relating to one SID file of
    the HVSC. They are always indexed by the HVSC-relative pathname.

TUNE
    One of the compositions in a SID. Most SID files have only one tune
    in them, but many have more than one (eg. one for the title score of
    the game, and one for the hi-score music).

OPTIONS -b Do not print BUG entries Default value: Not specified (ie. do print BUG entries)

    Example: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -b"

    When this option is specified, BUG entries will not be printed for
    the given SID tune. At a minimum, the -e option has to be specified
    for this option to work.

-d  Default value: Not specified (ie. debug mode is off)

    Example: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -d"

    Turns on debug mode in STILView. This will result in an extensive
    output, with the debugging messages going to STDERR. If you
    encounter any problem or strange behavior with STILView, run
    STILView with the exact same options as you did when you encountered
    the problem, with this -d option added to them. Capture the complete
    output of this run, and send it to me with a detailed explanation of
    the problem (see email address at the top of this file).

-e=*entry*
    Default: NONE (you have to give an HVSC-relative pathname to this
    option)

    Example #1: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid"

    Example #2: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/"

    This is where you specify the STIL entry you are looking for, given
    as an HVSC-relative pathname. If there exists no STIL entry for the
    given filename, STILView will print out nothing. Otherwise, you'll
    get the STIL entry (or parts of it, as you may have specified it by
    other options). HVSC-relative pathnames are case-insensitive, so
    /HUBBARD_ROB/Commando.sid is the same as /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid.

    Example #1 is the most frequent way of retrieving STIL entries, and
    it will return all of the STIL entry for Commando.sid, as well as
    the section-global comment for /Hubbard_Rob/. Example #2 is another
    valid thing to do: this will return only the section-global comment
    for /Hubbard_Rob/.

-h  Default: NONE Example: stilview -h

    Prints a brief help screen listing the available options. All other
    options that are also specified on the command-line are ignored.

-f=*field*
    Default: all

    Valid values for <field> are: all, name, author, title, artist,
    comment

    Example #1: "stilview -l -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -f=comment"

    Example #2: "stilview -l -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=1 -f=title"

    Example #3: "stilview -l -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=12 -f=all -s
    -b"

    Asks for one particular field in a STIL entry. Combined with the -t
    option, these two options can retrieve any portion of a STIL entry,
    including a single field in a specific subtune's entry. Below is
    full and complete explanation of what the different possible
    combinations of the -t and -f options retrieve:

    "-t=0 -f=all" : All of the STIL entry is printed.

    "-t=0 -f=comment" : The file-global comment is printed. For
    single-tune entries that have nothing but a COMMENT field in them,
    this prints that COMMENT. For single-tune entries that have other
    fields in them, this prints nothing. (This is because single-tune
    entries with nothing but a COMMENT field are assumed to be
    file-global comments.)

    "-t=0 -f=<name/author/title/artist>" : Nothing is printed. This
    combination of these options is invalid.

    "-t=<x> -f=all" : (Where x is anything but 0.) All fields from the
    portion of the STIL entry for the given tune number <x> are printed.
    For single-tune entries, asking for -t=1 -f=all is equivalent to
    saying -t=0 -f=all, since by definition, the whole entry refers to
    only one tune. (However, specifying -t with any other number than 1
    will print nothing!) Note that if there's a file-global comment in
    the STIL entry (which also means that if a single-tune entry has
    nothing but a COMMENT field in it), that is not printed with these
    combinations of options.

    "-t=<x> -f=<name/author/title/artist/comment>" : (Where x is
    anything but 0.) The specific field from the portion of the STIL
    entry for the given tune number is printed. For single-tune entries
    that have nothing but a COMMENT in them, this returns nothing.

    Of course, if the STIL entry or any portion of it asked with these
    options does not exist, STILView will print nothing. Also, unless
    otherwise specified with the -o, -s and -b options, the
    section-global comment and the BUG entry of the given SID file will
    also get printed (provided they exist).

    In example #1, the file-global comment for /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid is
    printed, since -t is not specified and is assumed to be 0. Also
    printed are the section- global comment and the BUG entry for the
    same SID file (if they exist). In example #2, the TITLE field of the
    STIL entry for tune #1 of /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid is printed along
    with the section-global comment and the BUG entry for the same SID
    file (if they exist). In example #3, all of the STIL entry for tune
    #12 of /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid is printed, but nothing else.

-i  Default: NONE

    Example: "stilview -i"

    Starts STILView in interactive mode, ignoring all other options
    specified on the command-line, except -l, -d and -m. In interactive
    mode, you can look for STIL entries by typing them in. You will get
    prompted for the desired STIL entry (which has to be specified with
    an HVSC-relative pathname), for the tune number requested (which
    should be any non-negative number, but this is not enforced), and
    finally for the specific STIL field you want to retrieve.

-l=*HVSC base dir*
    Default: The value of the HVSC_BASE environment variable

    Example #1: "stilview -l=C:\Music\HVSC\
    -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid"

    Example #2: "stilview -l=../HVSC/ =-e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid"

    Example #3: "stilview -l -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid"

    This is where you tell STILView where it can find the HVSC base
    directory (the path to the directory has to be specified in the form
    required by your operating system, eg. C:\Music\HVSC under Windows,
    /home/lala/HVSC under UNIX). STILView will then try to locate the
    STIL.txt file in the /DOCUMENTS/ subdirectory of that directory. If
    this option is not specified (or if -l is specified without a base
    directory), STILView will try to extract the path of the HVSC base
    directory from the HVSC_BASE environment variable. If that
    environment variable doesn't exist or is pointing to a location
    where there's no STIL.txt file in a DOCUMENTS directory, STILView
    fails. If the HVSC_BASE environment variable exists and is valid,
    and this option is specified, the directory specified with this
    option is used as the HVSC base directory instead of the environment
    variable.

    In example #1 the HVSC base directory is located in C:\Music\HVSC\
    on the hard drive of a Windows PC, in example #2 it is located in
    the HVSC directory of the current directory's parent directory of a
    UNIX system. In example #3 the HVSC base directory is not specified
    with the option, so it is assumed that the HVSC_BASE environment
    variable contains the path to it. In reality, specifying the -l
    option in example #3 is redundant, and can be omitted.

-m  Demo mode

    Default: NONE

    Example #1: "stilview -m"

    Example #2: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -m -i"

    When specified, it prints out a whole bunch of things that a) test
    most of the functionality of STILView, and b) show what STILView is
    capable of retrieving from STIL. In example #1, the demo is printed
    with the STIL info coming from a default STIL entry, then STILView
    quits. In example #2, the demo is printed taking the STIL info from
    the specified STIL entry of /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid (instead of
    the default SID file), then interactive mode is entered.

-o  Do not print STIL entries

    Default value: Not specified (ie. do print STIL entries)

    Example #1: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -o"

    Example #2: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -o -s"

    When this option is specified, STIL entries will not be printed for
    the given SID tune (but section-global entries and BUG entries will
    be printed, provided they exist and other options did not turn their
    output off). At a minimum, the -e option has to be specified for
    this option to work. Example #1 will print out the section-global
    comment and the BUG entry for /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid, example #2
    will print out just the section-global comment for the same SID.

-s  Do not print section-global comments

    Default value: Not specified (ie. do print section-global entries)

    Example: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -s"

    When this option is specified, section-global entries will not be
    printed for the given SID tune. At a minimum, the -e option has to
    be specified for this option to work.

-t=*tune number*
    Default value: 0

    Example #1: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -t=0"

    Example #2: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=1 -f=title -s -b"

    Example #3: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=12"

    Asks for the portion of a STIL entry referring to one particular
    tune. If tune number 0 is given, it retrieves all of the entry.
    Combined with the -f option, these two options can retrieve any
    portion of a STIL entry, including a single field in a specific
    subtune's entry.

    For further details about this option, see the explanation of the -f
    option.

    Example #1 retrieves all of the STIL entry for
    /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid, including the section-global comment and
    the BUG entry (if any), but since the default value for this option
    is 0, it might as well be omitted in this example. Example #2
    retrieves only the TITLE field of the first subtune's entry for
    /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid (and not the section- global comment or the
    BUG entry), while example #3 retrieves all of the STIL entry for
    tune #12 of the same SID file (including the section-global comment
    and the BUG entry, if any).

-v  Print version numbers

    Default value: Not specified (ie. do *not* print version numbers)

    Example #1: "stilview -v"

    Example #2: "stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -v"

    When this option is specified, the version number of the STILView
    program and the version number of the STIL.txt file used by it is
    printed out. In example #1 this is the only piece of info that gets
    printed on the screen, in example #2 the version numbers are printed
    out, then the STIL entry for /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid is also
    printed out.

ENVIRONMENT HVSC_BASE Specifies the location of the HVSC base directory.

EXAMPLES All of the examples below assume that the HVSC_BASE environment is set to a valid HVSC base directory (where the $HVSC_BASE/DOCUMENTS/STIL.txt and $HVSC_BASE/DOCUMENTS/BUGlist.txt files exist), and the examples also assume the presence of the following entries in these files:

 --- In STIL.txt ---

   /Hubbard_Rob/
   COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
            have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
            credited to him.

   /Hubbard_Rob/Action_Biker.sid
   COMMENT: "Action B was a very early game and very conservative in it's approach
            - it was my idea of giving them what I thought they wanted, a simple
            cute tune....." (RH)

   /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid
   COMMENT: Tunes #1 and #3 have been converted from arcade version.

   /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid
   COMMENT: According to Hubbard, Kentilla and Delta were the most complicated one
            to compose, they took the longest time to do and they both drove him
            insane.
   (#1)
     TITLE: On the Run [from the Dark Side of the Moon]
    ARTIST: Pink Floyd
   COMMENT: It is more inspired by it than a remix of it.
   (#12)
     TITLE: Koyaanisqatsi [from the movie]
    ARTIST: Philip Glass
   COMMENT: "Inspired by Philip Glass and Pink Floyd." (RH)

   /Hubbard_Rob/International_Karate.sid
     TITLE: Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence [from the movie] (0:42-1:16)
    ARTIST: Ryuichi Sakamoto
   COMMENT: "[...] I started exploring pentatonic things in B flat minor over
            different bass notes, B flat, D flat, G flat and A flat. The middle
            section went into F (I think) at double tempo to liven things up. I
            was pleased with the tune......" (RH)

   /Hubbard_Rob/Rasputin.sid
   (#1)
     TITLE: Katjusha (0:07-0:36)
    ARTIST: Matvei Blanter, M. Isakovski
     TITLE: Katjusha (2:20)
    ARTIST: Matvei Blanter, M. Isakovski
     TITLE: Kaljinka (2:41-2:51)
    ARTIST: Traditional
   COMMENT: Russian folk song.
     TITLE: Kaljinka (3:12-3:22)
    ARTIST: Traditional
   COMMENT: Russian folk song.
   (#2)
   COMMENT: Russian folk song.

 --- In BUGlist.txt ---

   /Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid
     BUG: This is just for demo.

   /Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid
   (#12)
     BUG: Demo entry.

Given these entries, following are the printouts you can expect from
STILView. ($> denotes a command-line prompt given by your operating
system.)

Everything related to a SID file is printed:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid
      ---- GLOBAL  COMMENT ----
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
      ------ STIL  ENTRY ------
      COMMENT: Tunes #1 and #3 have been converted from arcade version.
      ---------- BUG ----------
        BUG: This is just for demo.
   $>

Ask for just the section-global comment:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/
      /Hubbard_Rob/
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
   $>

Note that this can also be retrieved with:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Commando.sid -o -b
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
   $>

This prints out nothing, as single-tune entries do not have file-global
comments:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/International_Karate.sid -t=0 -f=comment -s -b
   $>

...Except if the only field in them is a COMMENT (in which case that
comment is assumed to be a file-global comment):

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Action_Biker.sid -t=0 -f=comment -s -b
      COMMENT: "Action B was a very early game and very conservative in it's approach
               - it was my idea of giving them what I thought they wanted, a simple
               cute tune....." (RH)
   $>

Also note that single-tune entries have only one tune, so asking for the
STIL entry of tune #3 is pointless:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/International_Karate.sid -t=3 -s -b
   $>

Print out the file-global comment for the given SID file:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=0 -f=comment -s -b
      COMMENT: According to Hubbard, Kentilla and Delta were the most complicated one
               to compose, they took the longest time to do and they both drove him
               insane.
   $>

Print out the ARTIST field of tune #12 of the given SID file, plus print
out everything else related to the SID file:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=12 -f=artist
      ---- GLOBAL  COMMENT ----
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
      ------ STIL  ENTRY ------
       ARTIST: Philip Glass
      ---------- BUG ----------
        BUG: Demo entry.
   $>

Note that the current version of STILView is capable to retrieve only
the first specified field of a tune that covers multiple songs! See
below:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Rasputin.sid -t=1 -f=title -s
        TITLE: Katjusha (0:07-0:36)
   $>

Section-global comments are printed out even if the STIL entry for the
given SID file does not exist:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/This_doesnt_exist.sid
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
   $>

The following 4 steps depict how to have STILView print out everything
related to a given SID file's given tune number one by one:

1) This prints out just the section-global comment:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -o -b
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
   $>

2) This prints out just the file-global comment:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=0 -f=comment -s -b
      COMMENT: According to Hubbard, Kentilla and Delta were the most complicated one
               to compose, they took the longest time to do and they both drove him
               insane.
   $>

3) This prints out all of the STIL entry for the given tune number:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=12 -f=all -s -b
        TITLE: Koyaanisqatsi [from the movie]
       ARTIST: Philip Glass
      COMMENT: "Inspired by Philip Glass and Pink Floyd." (RH)
   $>

4) And this prints out just the BUG entry for the same tune number:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -t=12 -s -o
        BUG: Demo entry.
   $>

The following 3 steps depict how to have STILView print out everything
related to a given SID file:

1) This prints out just the section-global comment:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -o -b
      COMMENT: All of these tunes have been confirmed by Hubbard to be his. People
               have often stolen Hubbard's routine causing some tunes to be falsely
               credited to him.
   $>

2) This prints out all of the STIL entry:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -s -b
      COMMENT: "[...] The Delta music loader and ingame music was Gary Liddon's idea.
               [...] He was the producer at Thalamus at the time. He told Rob Hubbard
               to make the ingame music like the 2nd track from Dark Side of the Moon
               by Pink Floyd." (Info from Matt Furniss.)
               "The small jingles are all small clips from Sanxion and Romeo/Juliet
               music. They were all supposed to be for short stingers such as end of
               level, extra life etc..."
               "Delta was based on this minimalist composition technique inspired by
               Glass and a bit of Pink Floyd. It was quite hard too do and required
               some custom code to the driver to do it. The music was tedious to
               debug. The other Delta stuff was more conventional - I quite liked the
               other tunes. Delta was spread over a 2 week period....." (RH)
               According to Hubbard, Kentilla and Delta were the most complicated one
               to compose, they took the longest time to do and they both drove him
               insane.
      (#1)
        TITLE: On the Run [from the Dark Side of the Moon]
        ARTIST: Pink Floyd
      COMMENT: It is more inspired by it than a remix of it.
      (#12)
        TITLE: Koyaanisqatsi [from the movie]
       ARTIST: Philip Glass
      COMMENT: "Inspired by Philip Glass and Pink Floyd." (RH)
   $>

3) And this prints out all of the BUG entry:

   $> stilview -e=/Hubbard_Rob/Delta.sid -s -o
      (#12)
        BUG: Demo entry.
   $>

AUTHORS LaLa LaLa@C64.org Original author.

Leandro Nini <drfiemost@users.sourceforge.net>
    Current maintainer.

RESOURCES Home page: https://github.com/libsidplayfp/ High Voltage Sid Collection (HVSC): http://hvsc.c64.org/

COPYING Copyright (C) 1998, 2002 LaLa Copyright (C) 2012-2017 Leandro Nini

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
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