February 25, 1996, Amsterdam Sacha Prins for personal and business related mail: sprins@businessnet.net for answering machine related mail: answer@businessnet.net INTRODUCTION Hi, I'm back. It been a long time since I released anything related to The Answering Machine for OS/2. I obtained my masters degree in computer science, and got a job as an internet con- sultant. My last project on the WWW is the businessNET site (http://www.businessnet.net). I hope that you can understand the time gap between the releases. The prior release to this one was version 1.06p, the heavily patched prototype version I started working on in 1994. Since then a lot has changed. I have worked on the modem communication and succeeded in creating a Voice Modem API in the form of a C++ object that encapsulates the Voice Modem functionality. The sup- ported Voice Modems are those that are based on the Rockwell voice command set. To see if you have such a modem you could enter the following string in a terminal program "AT#CLS=?". If you get a response that's similar to "0,1,2,8" you are in luck. The response means something like: 0 - data 1 - class1 Fax 2 - class2 Fax 8 - Voice operation There are other voice modems out there, in the form of ZyXEL and Cirrus Logic versions. Those are not supported. The 1.06p and prior versions were developed on a `Complete Communicator Gold' from `The Complete PC'. This company is now owned by Boca, if my information is right. Anyway, I've gotten a lot of reactions from people owning a Voice Modem of some brand that would not work correctly or at all. Those modems should work correctly now (note: `should' does not equal `will'). I'm thinking of `US Robotics', `Elsa Microlink' and other new generation 28.8 voice modems. This release (1.99a) is a very, very, very preliminary alpha version of what someday might become version 2.0 of The Answering Machine for OS/2. This version will be based on my Voice Modem API, which is incarnated as the `ME.DLL' Dynamic Link Library, also included in this release. I'm releasing this ver- sion as a test version. I hope to come in contact with many voice modem users to debug and perfect my API, and the application. INCLUDED FILES Included with this release are the following files: answer.cpp record.cpp play.cpp play.exe record.exe answer.EXE ME.DLL DMAIN.ZIP Basically this release consists of 3 programs. One to `play' Voice Modem audio files (ADPCM compressed audio) . One to `re- cord' those files. And one to act as a rudimentary `answer' - ing machine. To find out how to run the programs , just execute them without any parameters, and you'll see for yourself. One thing not mentioned there is the way `answer.exe' stores the incoming messages. The messages are numbered `0.msg' to `xxx.msg', in incremental order. If you start the `answer.exe' program a second time, the old messages will be overwritten, so save those in another dir, or change their name. I also included the source files of the three executables so that you, if you are interested in those things, can see how bril- liantly simple it is to program a Voice Modem with my API. I'm doing this because I'm also looking for customers that are interested in buying a developer-kit, to make their own applica- tions. The ModemEngine is located in the `ME.DLL'. The `DMAIN.ZIP' package is a package from Rockwell that makes it possible to convert the ADPCM files from your Voice Modem to and from RIFF WAVE files. It's a DOS package, but those run perfectly in a DOS box. I found this package on a Rockwell WWW-site (http://www.tokyo.rockwell.com I believe) and I'm including in it's totality. I hope that I'm not upsetting Rockwell people this way, if so I'll remove the Rockwell package from my package. FEEDBACK I'm interested in all feedback, from users as well as developers. I'm pretty short on time, so don't expect miracles. I'm also looking for one (or more) good partners to make a GUI version of the program. This because I'm short on time and I hate GUI, PM, windoze, X-windows etc. programming, because I keep rebooting my computer 20 times a day when doing this. E-mail addresses are at the beginning of this note. DISCLAIMER I wrote this program with the idea of helping myself, and other people with a voice-modem that use OS/2. I made it for fun, and will therefore NOT take any responsibility for anything this program will do. That includes any physical or mental damage to you or your computer. This software is provided `as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particu- lar purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusions may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. I have taken due care in preparing the documentation and software to ascertain their correctness and effectiveness. However, I do not warrant that operation of this software will be uninterrupted or error free. In no event shall I be liable for incidental or con- sequential damages in connection with or arising out of the furnishing, performance, or use of this software. LEGAL STUFF This software is (c) by Sacha Prins. All trademarks mentioned are owned by their respective owners. You MAY try the program for as long as you like. You MAY copy this software into any machine readable or printed form for back-up or modification purposes in support of your use of the software. You MAY distribute the original unmodified version of this soft- ware, but you may not charge a fee exceeding $5.00 to cover the cost of duplicating, shipping, and handling. You may NOT use, copy, modify, sublicense, assign or transfer this software and its license, or any copy or modification, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license.