xACT 2.

24
by Scott Brown <xactdeveloper@gmail.com>
For the latest version or news, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xACT-users
----What is xACT?
xACT stands for X Audio Compression Toolkit. It is a GUI based front end for the
unix applications Shorten (3.6.1), shntool (3.0.10), Monkey's Audio Compressor
(3.99), flac (1.3.0), wavpack (4.60.1), TTA (3.4.1), Opus 0.1.6, and cdda2wav 3.0
(with paranoia support). It also uses SoX ( 14.3.1), LAME 3.99.5, AtomicParsley
0.9.0, TagLib and mp4v2. It executes the basic commands of these applications and
adds other features to speed up productivity in creation/use of etree.org standard
filesets.
xACT started in 2003 as a simple graphical interface for the command line tool
"shntool." I knew a few people who didn't want to use the command line, so I
created a front end to let them use shntool (http://etree.org/shnutils/shntool/)
without having to use Terminal. I started adding support for flac, shn, monkey's
audio, etc. I thought only a few people would use it...
How do I install it?
Copy the xACT application to your hard drive.
How do I use it?
I'm sorry that this brief "how to" isn't nearly as complete as it should be. Someday
I'll get around to making it more detailed. If you have any questions about how to
use it, feel free to email me.
The basic functions of xACT are split into various tabs in the application. To convert
files from a compressed format like FLAC, SHN, Monkey's Audio, Wavepack, Apple
Lossless, etc to aiff or wav, you use the "Decode" tab. To convert files to these
losslessly compressed formats, use the "Encode" tab. To make md5 checksums of
files, verify md5 checksums or flac fingerprints, verify flac/wavpack/monkey's audio
files and other functions that can help verify the sanity of files, use the "Checksum"
tab. To use shntool specific functions (described in a section below), you use the
"shntool" tab. To fix sector boundary errors in 16 bit audio files, use the "Fix SBE"
tab. To edit tags in FLAC, AAC, Monkey's Audio, Wavpack, Apple Lossless or MP3
files, use the "Tags" tab. To use the batch rename function (described below), CD
Extraction, add Replay Gain to FLAC files, remove emphasis from 16 bit audio files,
or create a DVD-AUDIO disc image, use the "Util" tab (I didn't know where else to
put these). To convert lossless formats into lossy MP3 or AAC files, use the "Lossy"

tab. As of version 2.0, you should be able to do a combination of these things all at
the same time. There is a preference you can set to control how many operations
will do at the same time (max threads).
Tab details:
Decode tab: for decoding files to aiff or wav format. Note: xACT will not convert
mp3 or aac files to any lossless format. Drag files onto the file list on the left or
add files using the "Add" button. Choose output format to decode to and click
"Decode." You can decode to the directory of the source files, and can choose to
delete the original files after decoding.
Encode tab: For encoding files to lossless formats. Drag files onto the file list on
the left or add files using the "Add" button. Choose the output format and format
options if applicable.
Checksum tab: This tab can verify audio files (flac, wavpack, tta, ape), create
checksum files (md5, ffp, st5), or verify checksum files (md5, ffp, st5). To verify
audio files, add the files to the file list and select "Verify Audio Files." To create a
checksum file, add the files to the file list and select "Create Checksum File."
Choose the type of checksum file you want to create. To verify checksum file(s),
add the file(s) to the file list and select "Verify Checksum File."
shntool tab: xACT can execute 10 different shntool options (fix has its own tab):
len, info, join, split, cpm, cue, trim, pad, strip. The shntool documentation
(http://etree.org/shnutils/shntool/support/doc/shntool.txt) describes each:

lenDisplayslength,sizeandpropertiesofPCMdata
padPadsCDqualityfilesnotalignedonsector
boundaries
withsilence
joinJoinsPCMdatafrommultiplefilesintoone
splitSplitsPCMdatafromonefileintomultiple
files
cmpComparesPCMdataintwofiles
cueGeneratesaCUEsheetorsplitpointsfromaset
offiles
infoDisplaysdetailedinformationaboutPCMdata
stripStripsextraRIFFchunksand/orwritescanonical
headers
trimTrimsPCMsilencefromtheendsoffiles
fixFixessectorboundaryproblemswithCDquality
PCMdata
How xACT uses these commands:

-For len, the user can either call the standard shnlen function, or show the length
info parsed by disc or parsed as 1 fileset. The parsed output can be output with
track names by clicking the "names" button and putting in the track names.
-Info is the standard shntool info output.
-Join offers 4 output formats for the joined file.
-Split offers 4 output formats and will prompt the user for an input file containing
split points (for more info on split points, see the documentation for shntool). Note
that for split, if multiple files are in the file list at the left of the tab, only the first is
used.
-Cmp will call the standard cmp function to compare 2 audio files. Note that for
cmp, the first 2 files in the file list will be used.
-Cue creates a CUE sheet for the files given.
-Trim will trim silence from the end of files. There are 4 options for output formats.
-Pad and Strip do exactly what the shntool documentation says they do
Fix SBE tab: Since fixing sector boundary errors is probably the most popular
function of shntool, I thought that it deserved its own tab. There are 4 output
options for the fixed files. When outputting to SHN, the user can choose to create 1
md5 or an md5 per disc, provided the files are named accordingly (ending with disc
and track notation, like FOOBARd1t01). Note that the shntool I provided with xACT
does not rename the fixed files with a -fixed suffix. I removed the -fixed suffix to
avoid the user having to change the filename to remove the suffix later.
Util tab: kind of the "other stuff" tab with extra functionality people requested or I
didn't know what else to do with
-xACT can do very basic batch file renaming. If the user feeds the util tab a list of
files, it will sort them alphanumerically. When the execute button is clicked, the
user will be prompted for a prefix. This prefix will be used for all the files, and a
number (starting with 01 and incremented by 1 each time) will be appended after
the prefix. If the files initially have an extension, the user will be asked whether to
keep or ignore the extension. This feature can be useful when the user has a bunch
of files that need to be renamed and ordered with a common prefix.
-xACT can do cd extraction via cd paranoia. For PC Users, this is kind of equivalent
to EAC on a PC. It will do bit perfect extractions. Note: check out XLD if your main
purpose is CD extraction. It's very good.
-xACT can add or remove replay-gain to flac files.
-xACT can author a DVD-Audio Disc image for playback in a DVD-Audio compatible
player. The DVD-Audio spec has support for up to 9 different groups of tracks, but
xACT only has support for 1 group right now. I may add in support for all 9 groups
in the future. To make a DVD-Audio disc, drop either wav files or flac files onto the
file list, select "DVD Audio Disc" and click "Execute." xACT will author the
AUDIO_TS folder for the dvd and then create an .ISO image for burning to DVD.
Note: The files in a DVD-Audio group must be of the same sample rate (xACT will
scan the audio files to make sure of this). Also, creating a DVD-Audio disc requires
approximately twice the disc space as the size of the disc. For example: if you're
creating a 4GB disc, you need 8 GB free to create the disc; 4 gigs of temporary
scratch space for the AUDIO_TS folder, and then 4 gigs for the disc image. xACT is
using dvd-author to author the AUDIO_TS directory. Dave, Fabrice, Tim and Lee

did excellent work on dvd-author (for free!), but it still may have issues with certain
players or files.
Tags tab: xACT can write metadata tags for FLAC, MPEG-4 (AAC and Apple
Lossless), MP3, APE, and WavPack files. You can tag individual files one at a time
or tag a group of files at once. To select a file (or files), load the files into the list
on the left, then click a file (or files) in the list. After selecting a file, enter tag info
in the fields on the right. Clicking the "Write Tags" button will write the tags to the
file. If multiple files have been selected at once, the tags will be written to all the
files. Note that if you select more than 1 file at a time, you will not be able to put
in Title or Track Number tags, since these are specific to an individual file.
Lossy tab: xACT can convert files to MP3 (using the LAME encoder) or AAC. LAME
MP3 encoding can use a Constant Bit Rate (user defined) or Variable Bit Rate (V0V9). AAC Encoding can use a user defined Constant Bit Rate, Average Bit Rate or
Constrained Variable Bit Rate. xACT can also do true Variable Bit Rate AAC
encoding (value between 0 and 127, with 127 being the highest).
----xACT is freeware; see the "stuff" dir for info on the tools and libraries it uses.
----Where the Wild Things Are characters by Maurice Sendak.
----HUGE thanks to Dave Mallick for helping me test everything.
----Requirements:
-Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. v2.18 was the last version that officially works on 10.5.
----known issues:
-xACT may have issues dealing with a pathname that contains the forward slash
("/").
-cdda2wav may not support all drives
----Version History
2.24
-updates/fixes for 10.9 Mavericks compatibility
-updated flac to v1.3.0
-updated LAME to 3.99.5
-fixed bug when converting wav file to mp3 with extra RIFF chunks
-fixed bug relating to creating an md5 of files in different
directories/subdirectories
2.23
-file lists now sort files exactly like the Finder
2.22

-fix to Core Audio encoder bug when encoding from Apple Lossless to
AAC (wouldn't work before)
-added ability to delete a single file from the file list, or all files with a
certain extension. Right click on the file list to see these options.
-added Wavpack to FLAC and Wavpack to Apple Lossless encoding
-fixed bug in auto creation of ffp files when converting files to flac. If
saving to source directory, it will correctly create an ffp for each output directory
now.
-file list will now expand wide enough to see very long filenames
-When encoding to FLAC, last options for "Verify" "Keep Foreign
Metadata" and "Generate FFP" are now saved in preferences
-Save to source options are now saved in preferences
-Added option in Preferences screens for "Warn when deleting original
files" and "Notify when files are skipped"
-Fixed bug in Tags tab when loading tags for MP3 file. When a file had
no Total Tracks tag, the Track Number tag was being displayed in the Track Total
field
2.21
-added option to auto-create ffp file when fixing sector boundary
errors and outputting to FLAC format
-fixed bug when fixing sector boundary errors and outputting to SHN
format with md5.
-xACT now reads album art from AIFF files.
-fixing AIFF or FLAC files now retains all of the metadata tags.
-custom tags now saved on each keystroke
-very primitive support for encoding to Opus format (lossy tab)
-xACT will prevent the computer from going to sleep while there are
tasks running
2.20
-fixed bug with "delete original files" option on shntool tab where if
gave a false "Are you sure" confirmation box
-fixed bug in shntool len command when naming by disc
-added Notifications for finished task sets (requires OS X 10.8)
2.19
-code signed for Mac OS X 10.8 Gatekeeper
-set FLAC album art to the "FrontCover" picture type
-FLAC tags can now save full dates (2012-01-01) in the YEAR tag
instead of just the year
-added a checkbox to automatically create an ffp file when encoding
files to flac
-added the "Delete original files" and "Encode to source directory"
options to the shntool tab
-default FLAC fingerprint file (ffp) extension is now a user preference.
xACT used to default to ".ffp.txt" but the user can specify "ffp" instead
-if multiple files are added to the Tags tab file list, all new files are

selected by default
-on the Tags tab, added a button to use the previously saved tags.
This button will only become visible after you've set some tags since the application
launched.
2.18
-Should work in Mac OS X 10.5 again. (the latest version of Xcode
doesn't seem to make a 10.5 compatible version even though it says it does)
-Changed how the shntool "split" function works when renaming files
from a cue sheet. It should handle accented characters better.
2.17
-fixed bug in auto-naming files when user gave 2 tracks the same
name
-fixed bug in performing shntool operations when a directory had
square brackets in the path
2.16
-converting Monkey's Audio > FLAC now copies APE tags to to the
FLAC files.
-fixed bug when creating temporary filename with certain characters in
pathname.
-fixed bug that caused a crash when removing FLAC tags from multiple
files at once.
-added DISCTOTAL and TRACKTOTAL tags to FLAC, MP3, and M4A
files.
-added ability to enter custom tags for flac files. Note: this is a work
in progress.
-increased maximum number of threads from 10 to 24.
2.15
-Fixed bugs introduced by 2.14 relating to mp3 compression level and
saved settings.
2.14
-Fixed bug where flac files with .FLAC (uppercase) extension could
cause xACT to crash when converting to mp3
-"Lossy" tab now remembers your compression level settings
2.13
-Added ability to tag MP3, Monkey's Audio, and WavPack files.
Changed FLAC tagging to make unicode-friendly. Added ability to add album art to
FLAC, AAC, Apple Lossless and MP3 files.
-fixed bug when "Delete original files" option checked and task
canceled that resulted in original files still being deleted. Check now in place to
prevent this.
-added user preference to delete files or move to trash when "Delete
original files" checked. Default is to delete.

-added ability to convert Apple Lossless files to LAME mp3. Tags and
album art will be copied to the mp3.
-Added ability to parse a CUE file for tags (album, performer, track
names). From the "FLAC/M4A Tags" tab, select "Load Tags From CUE sheet" from
the File menu and choose a cue sheet. xACT will attempt to parse the metadata
from the file. Note: previous "Load track Names from file" was moved from the Edit
menu to the File Menu.
-added ability to make DVD-Audio disc image from flac or wav files.
note: the tool that authors the dvd-a data may picky about wav files having
standard headers. If wavs don't work, try flac files.
-fixed bug when using "shntool fix" to fix sector boundary errors on
files with no file extension.
-fixed bug when converting files with no extension to SHN
-fixed bug in custom shntool len format when time was not last
-fixed bug that caused a crash when verifying md5 checksum file with
invalid checksum format
2.12
-fixed bug when decoding Apple Lossless files to wav/aiff
2.11
-fixed bug where splitting a file with a cue sheet could hang or crash
the application (introduced in 2.10)
2.10
-fixed bug where splitting a file with a cue sheet could hang or crash
the application
-fixed bug that caused a crash when converting multichannel (> 2
channel) flac files to aac and apple lossless
2.09
-better Mac OS X 10.5 compatibility
2.08
-should work (but not guaranteed to) in Mac OS X 10.5
-added "File types not supported by this tab" message
-added ability to convert from ape directly to flac (encode tab)
-added support for cd extraction from blu-ray drives on most machines
-fixed bug that could cause a crash when parsing "shntool len" output
2.07
-added aiff tags handling. aiff > flac will copy aiff tags. flac > aiff will
copy flac tags.
-handles comment lines starting with ";" now. previous versions
assumed comments started with a "#" in md5 files.
-added warning when running a command with "delete original files"
option.

-added ability to remove pre-emphasis from wav or aiff files. note:

xACT uses SoX for de-emphasis and SoX will only remove pre-emphasis from
44.1khz files.
2.06
-fixed issue where converting .aif files to another format would output
files with the .aif extension still in the name (.aif.mp3 for example).
-96khz files can now be converted to AAC. They will be saved as
48khz aac files
-fixed bug where you couldn't md5 a non-audio file type. You can now
make an md5 of any file
-fixed bug where text file could be in shntool tab's file list and cause
crashes
2.05
-mp3 tags now written via TagLib instead of id3tool
-m4a tags now written via mp4v2 instead of AtomicParsley
-fixed bug when copying flac tags to mp3 and saving in different
directory (non source directory)
-fixed bug when creating md5 while fixing files and outputting to SHN
2.04
-Added ability to parse an info text file for track names. From the
"Track Name Input" window, select "Load Names From File" from the edit menu
and choose a text file. xACT will attempt to parse track names in the file. It looks
for lines that start with some variation of a track number: 01 or [01] or (01) or
[01.] etc. Note: this function is incomplete, very basic, and won't work for all
cases. It will be improved in future versions.
-should work with 32 bit processors.
2.03
-fixed bug when md5 files had comments
2.02
-fixed bug that could cause a crash when converting a very large
number of files from shn to flac
-changed the way that md5 checksums are computed. This should
lower memory consumption considerably.
-auto creation of md5 when converting to SHN should work correctly
-deleting source file when decoding .tta file should work correctly
-deleting source files when fixing sector boundary errors should work
correctly
2.01
-fixed bug that didn't properly set the level when converting to VBR
LAME mp3

2.00
-rewritten entirely from scratch in Objective C
-many bug fixes
-updated UI, new icons
-added auto-update via Sparkle
-multithreaded - can execute multiple tasks at once (see application
preferences to set the number of threads). Dock icon will show number of tasks in
queue.
-can cancel tasks already in progress
-progress bars for most tasks
-option to specify the format of custom "by disc" and "fileset" shntool
len output text (see application preferences)
-tags tab can now tag FLAC and M4A (aac, Apple Lossless) files
-converting flac > Apple Lossless will now copy Flac tags to the Apple
Lossless files
-splitting tracks from a CUE sheet will now rename tracks based on
TITLE info in the cue sheet
-updated shntool to 3.0.10
-updated wavpack to 4.60.1
-updated ttaenc to 3.4.1
-updated cdda2wav to 3.0
-"fix" option will now process files even if they need no fixing
-user can drop a directory on a file list or dock icon to process all of
the known file types in the directory and subdirectories
-added shntool "pad" and "strip" functions
-added ability to add or remove Flac Replay Gain (Util tab)
-added ability to trim characters from beginning or end of lines when
entering track names
-Checksum files can be saved in source directory.
-Requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher and Intel processor
1.71
-"Checksum" tab opens automatically when .st5 files dropped on the
dock/app icon
1.70
-compiled under XCode 3.2 in Snow Leopard
-when verifying a flac fingerprint file, xACT will now also verify the flac
files
-lines beginning with ";" are ignored when checking flac fingerprint
files (Trader's Little Helper puts comments in fingerprint files beginning with a ";")
1.69
-updated AtomcParsley to 0.9.2 - compiled from source for intel and
ppc to get around a bug with AtomicParsley's --overWrite flag
-fixed bug - when using "Auto Name" for flac tags
1.68

-added AAC tagging (using AtomicParsley) when converting flac to

AAC. Flac tags will be copied to the resulting AAC file
1.67
-fixed error message when on 10.4 and going to the lossy tab
1.66
-added Apple Lossless encoding and decoding (requires Mac OS X 10.5
or higher)
-xACT remembers settings on the fix tab
1.65
-added warning to "delete original files"
-added option to encode or decode to source directory
-xACT remembers the last format you encoded to
-cd extraction output has been shortened to only show final percent
(instead of 1 line per percent done)
-added aac encoding for users with OS version 10.5 or higher
1.64
-compiled under Xcode 3.0 that ships with Mac OS 10.5
1.63
-flac tag tab can now autoname selected tracks based on a list of
tracknames you input. Check "Auto-name," then enter in track names (one name
per line). Then select the files and it'll name and number them in order
1.62
--upgraded flac to 1.1.2
1.61
--removed Growl support
--upgraded shntool to 3.0.3 for intel, 3.0.2 for ppc
--added shntool "trim" function
--upgraded cdda2wav to 2.01.01a28 for both intel and ppc
1.60
--added basic support for LAME mp3 encoding (from flac, shn, wav,
etc). both VBC and CBR are supported
--upgrade flac to 1.1.4
--added basic Growl support (www.growl.info)
1.59
-added option to create standard md5s for flac files
-upgraded flac to v1.1.3
1.58
-reverted to sox 12.17.8 for intel due to weird bug in 12.17.9

-added "ENCODING", "FIXING", "DECODING" dock icons during those

operations
-added dock notification (1 bounce) when operations are completed
-added flac option --decode through errors, which will force xACT to
keep decoding a flac file even if it encounters errors
1.57
-compiled Universal Binary versions of shntool (version 2.0.3), shorten
(v3.5.1), flac(1.1.1 for ppc, 1.1.2 for intel), sox(17.17.8 for ppc, 12.17.9 for intel)
-fixed bug when encoding to monkey's audio
1.56
-fixed bug when calling "shntool split" and outputting to flac
-removed aiff option for cd extraction (cdda2wav made buggy aiff
files)
1.55
-set the "join" function of shntool to never pad the joined file with
zeros. note: this may leave a sector boundary error at the end of the joined files
-added CFBundleIdentifier to the application, so the finder can set
xACT as the default app for shn/flac/ape files better
-removed "b" from the version name. xACT is always a work in
progress, but I don't need to keep calling it "beta"
1.5b4
-fixed bug that made shorten freak out when doing shn > wav
1.5b3
-redid how xACT handles ALL filenames, paths, and directories. it
should handle characters like etc
1.5b2
-i forget
1.5b1
-added support for Wavpack and TTA formats. files cna be encoded
to/from these formats. wavpack files can be verified against an internal checksum
via the checksum tab
1.4b28
-fixed bug where fingerprint file containing files with spaces in the
name wouldn't verify correctly
-fixed bug where the output window would cause an error if closed and
reopened
-reverted back to aqua from brushed metal
1.4b27

-fixed bug introduced by v1.10 of applescript where "delete original

files" didn't work
1.4b26
-changed default extension for shntool md5 to .st5
1.4b25
-fixed bug that crashed the application under OS 10.4 when closing
the trackname window (shnlen)
1.4b24
-downgraded flac to 1.1.1 because or Mac OS 10.2.x incompatibility
1.4b23
-fixed bug where unicode handling broke handling of ffp files
-upgraded flac to 1.1.2
1.4b22
-added a jaguar version of monkey's audio. xACT will now check the
system version and call the panther version of monkey's audio for 10.3 and above.
If the system is below 10.3, a different version will be called
1.4b21
1/27/2005
-added "Write empty tags option for flac tags tab. if selected, the tags
that are empty will be written as empty tags, otherwise the empty tags will not be
written
1.4b20
1/26/2005
-reversioned with "b" instead of "d"
-added DISCNUMBER flac tag
-changed tag handling to write tags even when value is "" (can be
used to delete a tag)
-added a "current file" marker for the flac tags tab
1.4d19
1/17/2005
-fixed bug in shntool join mode when choosing flac as output file
1.4d18
1/16/2005
-changed implementation of rename input window
-removed flac libs from app
1.4d17
1/12/2005
-changed how files are moved to trash when "delete originals" is

checked. files are now moved to the trash of the volume they were on
-original files are also only deleted if encoding or decoding succeeded.
if there's an error, nothing is moved to the trash
1.4d16
1/10/2005
-modified how text is displayed in status panel
1.4d15
1/9/2005
-packaged all required binaries/libraries WITHIN xACT. no more
installation to usr/local/bin or /usr/local/lib. everything is IN the application.
-changed all references to String and text objects to Unicode text
-fixed bug when deleting original files after converting to flac
-included compiled sox 12.17.7, compiled without dependencies to ogg
vorbis and lame. libvorbis and liblame removed from libraries included with xACT
1.4d14
12/31/2004
-fixed bug in renaming of extracted tracks when more than 10 were
extracted
1.4d13
-added renaming based on cddb names of extracted tracks from cds
1.4d12
-changed the way xACT finds the IOProviderClass for extracting via
cdda2wav
-new installler needs root access (might go back to admin access.
testing this)
1.4d11
-changed the way xACT deals with ALL files. it should be able to
handle a forward slash ("/") in filenames now, though i won't guarantee it yet.
hopefully i didn't break other things with this change
-added an option to extract files from CD to 1 file instead of separate
files. note that the files will only go into 1 file if they are in order. ex: tracks 1 and
2 will go into 1 file. But if you want to extract tracks 1,2 and 4, they'll go into 1 file
containing 1 and 2, and another file containing 4.
-bundled flac and metaflac 1.1.1 binaries
-changed the metaflac calls for flac tag writing to be consistent with
flac 1.1.1
-fixed bug where fingerprints of filenames with special characters are
handled correctly now
1.4d10
-added code to find the cd burner based on the output of the "ioreg"

call for cd extraction

-added fading in/out of main window
1.4d9
-added support for cd extraction using cdda2wav and cd paranoia.
very primitive
1.4d8
-reverted back to default flac level within the shntool flac module.
xACT now uses the custom format module to allow the user to choose the flac level
when fixing sector boundary errors
-the user can also choose the flac level when encoding from shn to flac
directly
--added support for creating and checking the shntool md5
1.4d7
-started new Xcode project from scratch using existing code. Added
drag and drop support for all of the file lists.
1.4d6
-fixed bug with pc formatted ffp files. xACT should be able to check
them correctly now
-fixed bug with fingerprint file checking and filenames that contained
special characters
-xACT will now output ffp files with extension .ffp.txt and will recognize
the .ffp.txt extension as fingerprint files
-xACT will now output fingerprint files with filename:fingerprint (no
space after the colon)
-initial version with util tab and simple batch file renaming. see notes
above
-if the user adds SHN files to the Encode window and chooses to
encode to flac, xACT will convert the SHN files to flac at flac level 8. the flac level
slider will not matter here. the slider will still decide the level when encoding aiff or
wav to flac
-shntool binary included with xACT is now modified so if the user
chooses to fix and output to flac format, it defaults to level 8. as i said above, the
slider will still decide the level when encoding aiff or wav to flac
1.4d5
-upgraded code and functionality for shntool 2.0
-added CUE option for shntool tab
-if the user chooses to fix files and output to the same format as input,
xACT will not allow the user to overwrite original files. a different output directory
must be chosen. note that this is only in the case where input and output formats
are the same
-changed the fix command to never overwrite existing files
-back to brushed metal

1.4d4
-fixed weird interface bug relating to the "names" button
1.4d3
-upgraded monkey's audio to v3.99
-removed brushed metal texture to test out
-made the "names" button hidden on the shnlen option tab. it is only
visible when the "len by disc" option is selected
-changed the track names input window
1.4d2
-fixed a bug on "shnfix" where the flac option was never called
correctly
1.4d1
-added track name support to 2 shntool len options. Clicking the
"names" button will allow you to enter in track names. If you choose either "len for
fileset" or "len by disc," xACT will combine the tracknames and times together for
output. When displayed in a fixed width font, these times will line up.
-yes, I know the button and track name windows are *really* ugly.
That will change.
1.3
-added support for reading and writing FLAC metadata tags. You
should be able to tab to each field and even to the filelist. tags supported:
TITLE (I usually put the song name)
ARTIST
ALBUM (for a live show, I usually put in the venue and date)
DATE
COMMENT (for a live show, I usually put in the source info)
TRACKNUMBER
GENRE
COMPOSER (useful for classical music)
-fixed bug where a filename with multiple periods would be truncated
when converting to flac
-fixed bug when doing "len by disc" with no disc 1 files
-new, separate installer package for binaries
-changed the way shns are decoded. shn > aiff is now *much* faster
(due to the calling of shorten directly). shn > aiff creates a temporary wav which
will be deleted automatically.
-better error messages on shorten decode
-added document icons for flac, ape, shn, md5, and ffp.
-fixed a bug where a fingerprint file would not show up on the fileList if
it was dropped on the unopened application.
-added support for encoding aifc files to either shn or flac. aifc to ape
does not work at this time

-the ENTER key should click the main buttons on each tab
1.2
--added .ape encoding. xACT will convert aiff files to wav before
encoding to .ape. After the .ape file is created, the temp .wav file will be deleted.
--added .ape verification.
-upgraded sox to 12.17.4
-fixed a bug in encode so invalid file formats are now caught correctly
-added support for checking multiple md5 files or multiple flac
fingerprint files at one time. note: checking a flac fingerprint file and md5 file at
the same time doesn't work yet.
-changed so encode, decode and checksum lists are now sorted
-fixed a bug I was having on 10.3.1 and 10.3.2 where the app would
unexpectedly quit when files were dropped onto the dock with certain tabs open.
-added support for a blank user password (on installation)
-24 bit ape to aiff and 24 bit aiff to ape attempts are caught and
stopped correctly.
-changed the way ape decode is handled. I now call monkey's audio
directly instead of telling shntool to convert to wav or aiff. if converting .ape to
aiff, it will extract to a temporary wav first, then convert to aiff.
-added monkey's audio error codes.
-the main window can no longer be closed
-changed the layout of the encode tab to be less cluttered with the
addition of .ape encoding
-parsed the output from both .flac and .ape verification to give a
shorter, more concise message. xACT also parses the .ape error messages.
Hopefully I didn't screw any messages up :)
1.12
-replaced md5sum binary with modified md5sum that can deal with
DOS formatted digests. removed dos2unix since that was just a temp fix anyway.
1.11
-discovered a bug within v2.1 of md5sum (GNU texutils 2.1). DOS
formatted md5 files would not check correctly with md5sum -c. Instead of
changing md5sum, i just changed my code and submitted the bug to bugcoreutils@gnu.org
-xACT now bundles dos2unix to convert text files from DOS to unix
1.1
-improved error handling across the board
-added error log to display a summary of all errors (if any) when
processing multiple files at one time
-added output for all fix calls

-added support for decoding of .ape Monkey's Audio files

-added shntool functions split, join, cmp
-added code to hide options that are not relevant to currently selected
function
-apple+w now closes windows
-made the file lists larger and added scroll bars. changed other tabs to
accomodate larger size of file lists
-removed "cancel" from all error dialog boxes, added timeout of 20
seconds
-added icons to all dialog boxes
1.01
-I am an idiot and forgot to include the sox binary with 1.0. somehow

it got lost between 0.97 and 1.0. it's back now

1.0
-removed a dialog box from the checksum tab
0.97
- changed how md5's are made when created from encode or fix tab
-new icon
0.96
-fixed bug where hitting the "add" button and then cancel didn't cancel
-fixed bug where encoding multiple times didn't clear the previous file
list
-Added option to delete original files after an encode, decode, or fix.
To be safe, the files aren't actually deleted, they are just moved to the trash.
0.95

(i don't want to call it 1.0 yet)

-added "show len for fileset" option to show just the times and total for
a given fileset
-Modified the way the shntool calls were made so that files could be in
different directories when calling "show len by fileset" and "show len by disc."
-Added padded zeros to "show len by fileset" and "show len by disc"
output when necessary.
0.9
-added "show len by disc" option to create a skeleton info file for each
disc. Filenames must denote disc. The app parses on the last 'd' in a file name, (so
if a file has a 'd1' somewhere towards the end, it'll see that it's disc 1). This is the
same string parsing as the "md5 by disc" option in the fixSBE tab.

-fixed bug in default actions

0.8
-Added default actions for .md5 and .ffp files
-Added FLAC fingerprint file verification.
-Added error checking to verification routines.
-more little fixes
0.7:
-When the program is launched by dropping files on the icon, the
following default actions are now implemented:
-If file is flac or shn, Decode Tab opened and files added
-If other (wav, aiff, aif, no file extension), Encode tab is opened and
files added.
0.6:
-"Add" button added to each tab. Multiple files can be selected
-MD5 verification
-FLAC verification/testing
-the Shntool "len" and "info" options now output only the filename,
and not the entire path.
-fixed many bugs dealing with md5 creation, naming of output files,
the app hanging on certain operations, etc.
0.5
-Few bug fixes
0.4
-Update for Panther compatibility (including updated binaries)
-Added Brushed Metal to interface
-More bug fixes
-Output window now has a fixed width font
-"Clear" button added to each tab
0.1

-originally based on MacFlac by Dan Greuel <dan@danrules.com>