foo_monkey 0.2.3 Format Flags?

2005-02-25 06:49:51

Hi,

The older (0.2.2) version of foo_monkey did not write format flags to the APE files.
The newer version does.
Not a HUGE thing, but they are not needed and I'm wondering why they were added.

According to Matt, the Monkey's Audio developer:
"They're internal flags, really only useful for debugging.

The revised file header format of 3.98 made most of the flags obsolete.  It's all described in detail in MACLib.h in the source code."

Thanks for any explaination. I'm always curious when debug information is added to something I use.

foo_monkey 0.2.3 Format Flags?

Reply #1 – 2005-03-27 22:27:02

Flags are not debug information but seeing the flags is not that useful for purposes other than debugging.

The flags you see with new foo_monkey created files are there to tell that the APE files do not contain any original WAV header and decoder generates appropriate header when converting to .wav. Normally when you create Monkey files with original frontend you use WAV files as source. This tool saves the header of the WAV as it is so that you can re-create identical file when decompressing. With foobar there is no WAV file to begin with and saving some bogus header would only waste bytes.

foo_monkey 0.2.3 Format Flags?

Reply #2 – 2005-03-28 02:01:03

Thanks for the reply.

I used foobar to convert a single track from an album to APE using the commandline capability and the foo_monkey component.

I then used Monkey's Audio 3.99 to decompress both.

The resulting wav files are identical.

It would seem to me that the flags are as Matt says, not needed. It would also seem that it makes no practical difference, so I will continue to use foo_monkey. I was just wondering/concerned if there would be a difference between flagged and unflagged.

foo_monkey 0.2.3 Format Flags?

Reply #3 – 2005-03-28 16:40:19

The files are identical because the tool is generating the header when the flags tell it to. Did he not make it clear enough?