Announcement: mpap.app version 1.0

What It Is
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mpap allows you to play MPEG audio files on OpenStep/Mach 4.2 (Intel only; NeXT hardware isn't fast enough to decode mp3's in realtime) and Rhapsody/MacOS X Server (Intel and PowerPC).  The most common use of this would be for playing "mp3" files, which proliferate wildly on the internet.

Some Features, in No Particular Order:
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.  Preferences allows you to choose between two different window styles, "Normal" or "Compact".
.  Preferences allows you to set the relative window level for each of the two styles.  You can make Compact mode float in front of all other windows, for example.
.  In Compact mode, the interface appears in a borderless, 64 x 64 panel.  You can move the panel around by clicking and dragging in any empty panel space (i.e. wherever there is no button or textfield).
.  In Compact mode, the control window's background is the contents of the "NXAppTile" image, so those of you who have tweaked this in your Workspace.app or something should be satisfied (if you don't know what that means, then just ignore this).
.  mpap will remember where you last placed each style.
.  MPEG audio files and be dragged and dropped directly onto the control window.
.  The playlist feature lets you save one or more playlists containing multiple MPEG audio files.  When you use this feature, mpap will always remember which was the last playlist you used, and open that playlist again when you launch the app the next time.
.  Items in the playlist can be reordered by command-dragging (hold down the command key, left alt key, or "clover" key depending on platform and/or preference, and click and drag individual items up and down).
.  Items in the playlist are cut'n'paste-able.  They can also be removed with the "Delete" item in the Edit menu.
.  The "Center Control Window" item under the Window or Windows menu does what it says it will do, in case you happen to lose the control window on a crowded desktop.

Cast of Characters

.  Tobias Bading wrote the original "maplay" portable mpeg audio player.  Eventually some branch of maplay became known as "mp1A", which currently seems to be maintained by Jeff Tsay, who also added the layer 3 decoding.
.  Pete French and Ian Stephenson wrote the original NeXTStep audio buffer for maplay.
.  Jack Nutting (jnutting@rebisoft.com) took the most recent maplay/mp1A source he could find, fixed up the audio buffer code for OpenStep use, and built a cute little GUI wrapper for the whole thing.  If you're gonna complain, send gifts, or voice any other opinion, he's the patsy.
.  OmniGroup unknowing supplied some of the icons for the GUI.  Don't blame them for anything else.

History of the Current Work

.  Halloween, 1998:  Version 1.0 is unleashed upon the world.