written by Mark Paede2
CDDB2TEX is a Win32-program (written in Delphi 3) which was written to convert CDDB-data (see www.cddb.com, stored by programs like AIC or CDmax) to LATEX-Files (for TEXing cd-cover.sty/.cls3is needed). It is not a frontend for the CDDB - it can not connect to the CDDB nor can it read the necessary CD-data by itself.
With version 0.9 CDDB2TEX is able to read (MP3)-playlist-files (M3U and PLS) written by programs like WinAmp.
A (scaled) example for the layout is given in figure 1. You can fold and cut the paper and receive an excellent CD-box-inlay.
If you want to use it with the CDDB, you should get a program which can retrieve data from the CDDB (see 2.3) first. Then you should catalog all the CDs you want to print a cover for and retrieve the CDDB-data for it.
Using CDDB2TEX for playlists is quite the same. You need a program which can write playlists in M3U or PLS-format. As in this format no title for the CD is stored, CDDB2TEX relies on a file-name (for the playlist) in the format artist-CDname. Important is the '-'. For spaces within the names you can use spaces or underscores, for various artists use 'various' as artist.
Now you can start CDDB2TEX, open the required data-file
(open-dialog) and double-click on any entry listed in the
CD-list-window. CDDB2TEX now tries to write a LATEX-file in the
same directory (by default) or in the directory selected by the
"Save"-dialog (for the filename refer to 3.4) which can be
TEXed using either the cd-cover style or class.
The cd-cover needs the rotating.sty and therefore
the DVI-file needs to be converted to PostScript (using
dvips) and printed on a PostScript-printer or using
GhostScript.
http://www.paede.de/mark/tex/cddb2tex/cddb2tex.zip.
I don't know. But I will send you a mail if you wish. Just send a mail to cddb2tex@paede.de with the subject cddb2tex-updates.
CDDB2TEX can read the data files produced by CDmax and AIC. As CDmax uses the original CDDB-format, you should be be able to use any other CDDB-program which stores it's data in CDDB-format too.
If somebody knows any further program which can or should be able to be used with CDDB2TEX just write me a short mail. I can not promise to integrate other import-filters, but maybe...
CDDB2TEX itself is not and will not be able to communicate directly with the CDDB and so it needs some program which does this for it.
Additionally since V0.9 CDDB2TEX is able to read M3U- and PLS-playlists e.g. written by WinAmp. I don't think I have to explain what this is useful for...
The most problems will occur due to improper CDDB-entries, and I can not and want not to fix every problem caused by this. But if a problem occurs very often, I might try to integrate a work-around in CDDB2TEX - just write me a short e-mail.
You should check the CDDB-entries for properly used special characters (see 3.2). Sometimes the wrong character-set is used, sometimes letters like ä or ø are written ae or o.
Maybe you wish to correct not properly written CDDB-entries - see the CDDB-docu how to do this.
The docu for CDDB says just character set ISO-8859-1 (e.g. used by Windows or Unix) or US-ASCII should be used, but not everyone reads the docu... I put in a filtering which should change the non 7-bit-characters of the Windows (ISO-8859-1) character-set to TEX-commands. Other character-sets (like DOS, CP437) will not be exported properly or may cause (CDDB2TEX-internal) problems.
The CDDB-definition for entries is "artist / title",
the "/"-character is just allowed for this purpose. CDDB2TEX relies on this definition, so entries like "artist - title",
"artist - title / subtitle", "artist one / artist two - title",
"artist one / artist two / title" and so on will lead to (serious)
problems (like non-recognition of different artists or misplaced
& in the tabular-environment).
There are three solutions for this problem:
Usually CDDB2TEX uses "artist-CD title.tex" as filename for the TEX-output (non allowd charcters like "*" or ":" are replaced by "_" or "-").
CDDB2TEX uses a very simple algorithm to convert long to short
filenames (it just deletes lower-case-characters and cuts the
remaining string to 8 characters befor adding ".tex".) This
may result in filenames like "-.tex"
Or -, - - and - - - : You may want to correct these in the TEX-file, as probably nobody uses them for the CDDB.
Is it a problem? I remember something, but can't reproduce it.
Double-CD-Covers are not implemented (see 4), so you have to do it manual.
A second problem is the non-standarized way how to label it in the CDDB - but you will see it yourself sooner or later... Probably you will find your own way how to design the cover. Maybe you want to do something which looks similar to normal CDs:
\vspace{1ex} {\Large \bf CD No. 1}
\small or \footnotesize
before the \begin{tabular}.
I see three solutions for this:
\small or \footnotesize.
\entry command in the tex-output.
At least the 'normal' text option is realized in V0.9.
I try to correct bugs as soon as I know them. If you have any (reproducable) problems please write me (e-mail: cddb2tex@paede.de). Probably I will need the file and the title of the CD where the problem occurs.
Something about the version-numbers: The first number stands for main-releases (complete redesign, dramatically increased functions or something like this). V0.x means that I think the program is useful but far from being ready, V1 means that it is ready (for the moment). A change of the second number means some clear improvements were done. The last one stands for done bug-fixes or minor improvements.
Other numbering could have lead to V3.1 or even 2000 instead of 1.0...
cd-cover.cls
\Large to \huge with various-artists-CDs: The size is now the same like the artist on single-artist-CDs
& % \ in names/titles sometimes were not changed to \& \% \\)
/ instead of / was used for delimiter artist/title - corrected
127 to TeX-commands produced garbage - corrected
127 in CD-name and title were not converted to TeX-commands - corrected
& % \ in CD-names/titles were not changed to \& \% \\ - corrected
\AA are now ended by {}
} of each cover - now all covers should have the same position on the page
This document was generated using the LaTeX2HTML translator Version 2K.1beta (1.50)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
Nikos Drakos,
Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999,
Ross Moore,
Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
The command line arguments were:
latex2html -init_file CDDB2TEX.INI cddb2tex.tex
The translation was initiated by Mark Paede on 2002-04-06