FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (AFAQ) :
      -----------------------------------


   Q. Why don't I hear hear anything?

   A. Use another command to set the volume (adavox does
      not adjust volume). The aumix command is a good
      command line mode command to use.


   Q. Why do I get "clicks" and "gap noises"?

   A. Your system was too busy, or is too slow (386
      hosts may struggle). Consider allowing realtime
      scheduling (if it is supported) by running the
      adavox executable as setuid root:

      # chmod u+w /usr/local/bin/adavox


   Q. Why does it play noise on files that used to
      play OK before?

   A. I found that 4.3-RC FreeBSD has a problem in its
      sound driver support (this problem may have been
      inherited from Linux). If adavox is interrupted, or
      after playing certain sound files, the sound driver
      does not play correctly (you hear noise). This is
      probably due to an odd number of samples being
      written to /dev/dsp when in sterio. It appears that
      the driver does not automatically reset properly
      after this happens, unless by chance that extra
      sample is made up again. To be investigated further.


   Q. Why do I get noise playing my IMA/DVI ADPCM wave
      file, which is supposed to be supported? And
      by the way, CoolEdit-2000 plays it OK.

   A. The CODEC has been designed to work for
      2, 3, 4, and 5 bit samples. The 2 and 5
      bit formats are not standard formats, but
      are designed to be compatible with
      CoolEdit-2000. The provided CODEC works
      with all CoolEdit-2000 generated
      monophonic files. However, CoolEdit-2000
      generated sterio files do not seem to
      play correctly, unless the 4-bit format
      is chosen. Even though CoolEdit-2000
      plays its own files correctly, it is
      believed that CoolEdit-2000 incorrectly
      interleaves the samples for sterio files
      for non 4-bit sample files.


   Q. How do you record a file with adavox?

   A. You can't, yet.
      

   Q. What do these exceptions mean?

   A. Ada is a very precise language, which is used
      for mission critical systems. When things don't
      go correctly, exceptions are raised. Ada is
      much fussier than C++ (which also has exceptions).
      Compiled Ada code will check for numeric
      overflows, array bounds and a host of
      other things (which C/C++ does not check).

      Normally, you the user should not see
      these exceptions when the code is properly
      completed and tested. However, adavox is still in
      an _ALPHA_ test and development state.

      Most of the anticipated exceptions are trapped
      within the software and a user friendly message
      is provided in its place. Any exceptions that
      you will see, will probably be unanticipated
      exceptions, which probably should be reported
      to the author (if the sound file is small, it
      should be included with the report).


   Q. Where can I find out about updates to adavox?

   A. While the author does not find much time for
      web site maintenance, the author's web site
      is probably still the best place for the
      latest news about, or downloads of adavox.

      http://members.home.net/ve3wwg

      Announcements will be made to comp.lang.ada,
      comp.os.linux.announce and 
      comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce.


   Q. How can I help?

   A. MPEG layer 3 support (MP3) and OGG Vorbis
      support is still needed (in Ada95 only
      please). Contact me before
      you get started however, since I may be
      able to save you from barking up the wrong
      tree, and/or coordinate other ongoing efforts
      with you. I also have some code that was
      started in this regard.

      Additionally, I need wave files with G.721,
      G.722, G.723.3 and G.723.5 compression formats.
      It should not be too much work to add support
      for these, but I cannot test this support
      without test files.

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