[mad-announce] MAD suite 0.15.0b released

[Rob Leslie]

At long last, MAD 0.15.0b is now available.

This release is a bit different from previous releases: there are now 
independent packages for libmad, libid3tag, and madplay.

There is not at this time an update to the MAD plug-in for Winamp; 
0.14.2b is still the current release for the plug-in.

Here is a summary of the important changes:

General
   - Shared libraries are now built by default.
   - Cygwin builds have reverted to Cygwin dependency by default; MinGW
     builds are still possible with the --host=mingw32 option to 
'configure'.

libmad
   - Minor compatibility enhancements: 64th entry to Layer I/Layer II
     scalefactor table; allow reserved emphasis value in frame headers.
   - Bug fix for ARM mad_f_scale64() that was tickled by certain 
optimization
     options.
   - API additions: mad_f_div(), MAD_EMPHASIS_RESERVED.
   - Rewritten PPC fixed-point assembly.

libid3tag
  - Numerous API additions: id3_tag_version(), id3_tag_options(),
    id3_tag_setlength(), id3_frame_field(), id3_field_getlatin1(),
    id3_field_getfulllatin1(), id3_genre_index(), id3_genre_number(),
    id3_latin1_ucs4duplicate(), id3_utf16_ucs4duplicate(),
    id3_utf8_ucs4duplicate().
  - Fixed missing interfaces for other API routines.
  - Bug fix for segfault rendering ID3v1 tags.
  - Bug fix for reading ID3v2.2 frames.
  - Other miscellaneous improvements.

madplay
  - Support for arbitrary resampling ratios (--sample-rate).
  - Support for RVA2 (relative volume adjustment) ID3 tag frames.
  - Keyboard controls for dynamic volume control (+/-).
  - Support for ancillary data output (--ancillary-output).
  - New audio_qnx, audio_alsa modules (untested).
  - New audio_carbon module (tested, for Mac OS X).
  - Other miscellaneous improvements.

For complete details, see the CHANGES file in each package. Be sure 
also to review the README in each package for modified build/install 
instructions.

You will find the new releases here:

     ftp://ftp.mars.org/pub/mpeg/

Windows developers who need zlib (no longer included with the above) 
can find a convenient package here:

     ftp://ftp.mars.org/pub/mpeg/extra/

(Note that zlib is already available as part of Cygwin, so you may only 
need this package if you are using MSVC++ or want to use MinGW to 
eliminate the Cygwin dependency.)

Enjoy,

-- 
Rob Leslie
rob@mars.org