README for MIDI-Perl Time-stamp: "1999-05-13 11:24:38 MDT" MIDI-Perl MIDI-Perl is a suite of Perl modules that allows you to read, compose, modify, and write MIDI files. It is largely object-oriented, but if you follow the example code, you should be able to get along fine. See http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/~sburke/pub/perl_midi/ for more info. (If you register there, you'll get on my list of people to send announcements to when I release a new version.) PREREQUISITES This suite requires Perl 5; I've only used it under Perl 5.004, so for anything lower, you're on your own. I've heard that some pre-5.004 versions of Perl had a few bugs in BER-encoding, which is used extensively in MIDI, but whether those bugs could surface in the use of the MIDI modules, I don't know. So consider yourself warned. MIDI-Perl uses no external libraries at this time, aside from Carp, which has been standard for as long as I can remember. If you want to use MIDI::Opus::draw, you'll also need GD.pm, however. INSTALLATION You install MIDI-Perl, as you would install any perl module library, by running these commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install If you want to install a private copy of MIDI-Perl in your home directory, then you should try to produce the initial Makefile with something like this command: perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/perl DOCUMENTATION See lib/MIDI.pm for an overview of the suite. See ChangeLog for recent changes. POD-style documentation is included in all modules. POD is readable with the 'perldoc' utility. MACPERL INSTALLATION NOTES Don't bother with the makefiles. Just move MIDI.pm and the "MIDI" folder into your MacPerl library folder. Read the PODs with Shuck. SUPPORT Questions, bug reports, useful code bits, and suggestions for MIDI-Perl should just be sent to me at sburke@netadventure.net AVAILABILITY The latest version of MIDI-Perl is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit to find a CPAN site near you. COPYRIGHT Copyright 1998,1999 by Sean M. Burke , all rights reserved.