-- last edit: 28-feb-2005

MISSION STATEMENT
==================

Birne tries to be a complete replacement for the Python script burn[0].
The main difference is that Birne comes with a nice Gtk+ GUI (surprise,
surprise!).

If you don't know burn or want some more details anyway, read on.

Birne tries to make CD burning as easy as it should be. There will be no
wizards, but only one small window which enables you to burn data and
audio CDs without much hassle. Copying existing CDs, creating
multisession CDs or simulating a burn run are of course possible, too.
(In fact, you can pass arbitrary options to cdrecord, which is used as
backend workhorse.)

Source for data CDs can be normal files and directories, archives and
images (like iso or nrg).  Audio CDs can be created from wav, mp3 and
ogg files with automatic on the fly decoding without any external
programs.

General philosophy is to always "do the right thing"[tm] without
taking control from the user.

* On first start it will automatically search for all required programs
  (like mkisofs and cdrecord) and create a configuration file in the
  user's home directory. This will be simple plaintext and can be edited
  with any text editor. Birne will respect these settings and never
  overwrite them.
 (No progress on this front yet)

* When you add files it will guess what type of CD you want to create.
  (You may of course change your mind at any time).
  (And I may drop this feature, sounds silly now.)

* Before burning begins, the user will be warned if there is not enough
  space to create a temporary image or if the image is too large for the
  blank CD. If you know better, you can still try your luck.
  (Oh yeah, I really should do that!)

* After the burning process it will offer to remove source files.
  (Well, it simply does. Don't know yet whether I should add a checkbox
  for that)

* All messages and warnings will have safe default options, but will
  still enable the user to shoot him/herself in the foot.
  (As of yet, I got away without any dialog boxes. I hope I can keep
   this up.)

TARGET MARKET
==============

Anyone, of course. Birne is neither for experts nor for novices
only. It is just designed to get the job done with minimum effort and
knowledge.  People who generally prefer command line programs might want
to use burn[0] instead.


PROGRESS STATUS
================

Most of the above is still fiction. Currently, burning ISO images and
arbitrary files to CD is supported by the latest development
snapshots[2]. You can also watch a screenshot[1] of the current version
in action.

WHAT YOU (WILL) NEED
=====================

You'll need Linux (2.4 or 2.6), cdrecord, mkisofs and a Python
interpreter with Gtk+ and Glade libraries. All of these should come with
your distro of choice. In early stages of the development process I will
use Debian (sid) with Python 2.3 only but after making some real
progress I will test other distributions and Python versions as well.

To use the built-in audio processing for mp3 and ogg files, you will
also need python-pyogg and python-eyed3.

Maybe the script will work with other versions of Unix, too. I am not
sure for which platforms cdrecord is available.

[0] http://bigpaul.org/burn
[1] http://wasteland.homelinux.net/images/birne.png
[2] http://wasteland.homelinux.net/projects/birne/birne.tar.gz
[3] http://primates.ximian.com/~sandino/python-glade/
[4] http://pygtkmvc.sourceforge.net/

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