The [soundRef] command.

Introduction

The soundRef command lets you create and manipulate sound objects in Alpha.

Synopsis

The formal syntax of the [soundRef] command is:

soundRef subcommand ?options?

The possible subcommands are described below. Depending on the subcommand, various options can be additionally specified.

The [create] subcommand

This subcommand creates a new sound object. It has the following syntax:

    soundRef create (-data bin|-file str|-name str|-url str)

The [soundRef create] command returns a token used in the other subcommands to uniquely identify the sound. One of the options -data, -file, -name or -url must be specified.
Here is the description of the various options:

the -data option lets you specify binary data corresponding to the sound.
the -file option lets you specify the name of a file containing the sound. The value can be a full or relative path name specifying the file with the desired sound data.
the -name option lets you specify a sound by name.
the -url option lets you specify a sound by its URL.

The -name option searches for named sounds in several places, returning the first sound it finds matching the given name. The preferred way to locate a sound is to pass a name without the file extension. The order of the search is as follows:

Search for an object whose name was set explicitly.
Search the Application Kit framework for a system sound with the specified name. The system sounds located in /System/Library/Sounds have been named by the Application Kit using their filenames without the file extension. See the table below.
Search the application's main bundle for a file whose name matches the specified string.

If no sound file can be located in the application bundle, the following directories are searched in order:

~/Library/Sounds
/Library/Sounds
/Network/Library/Sounds
/System/Library/Sounds

Here is, for instance, the list of sounds found in the /System/Library/Sounds folder (as of Mac OS X 10.9, it may differ on different versions of the system):

Basso

Blow

Bottle

Frog

Funk

Glass

Hero

Morse

Ping

Pop

Purr

Sosumi

Submarine

Tink

The [delete] subcommand

This subcommand lets you delete a sound. The syntax is:

    soundRef delete token

After deletion, the token associated with this sound is not valid anymore.

The [list] subcommand

This subcommand returns a list of the existing sound tokens. The syntax is:

    soundRef list

The [pause] subcommand

This subcommand lets you pause audio playback. The syntax is:

    soundRef pause token

The [play] subcommand

This subcommand lets you initiate audio playback. The syntax is:

    soundRef play token

The [resume] subcommand

This subcommand lets you resume audio playback. The syntax is:

    soundRef resume token

The [stop] subcommand

This subcommand lets you conclude audio playback. The syntax is:

    soundRef stop token

The [volume] subcommand

This subcommand lets you get or set the volume of a sound. The syntax is:

    soundRef volume token
    soundRef volume token value

The first form of the command returns the current volume.
The second form of the command is used to set the volume for a sound.

Examples

Open the Tcl Shell (with ⌘Y) and enter the following commands, one by one:

Welcome to Alpha's AlphaTcl shell.
«» soundRef create -name Submarine
sound1
«» soundRef play sound1
«» soundRef volume sound1
1.0
«» soundRef volume sound1 0.4
«» soundRef play sound1
«» soundRef delete sound1

Last updated 2019-10-17 13:29:32