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CDDesigner Manual: Designing a CD

Designing a CD

The Document

CDDesigner handles descriptions of CDs as documents, further simply called CDs. So CDs are represented by a document window where the window title describes the CD's source. When CDDesigner starts a new empty document is opened.

See Documents

The CD Format

The CD format determines if the CD contains a data track, audio tracks or both of them. The second case you will get a CD-DA, in the last case a Mixed-Mode-CD. The CD format can be changed while designing a CD without any loss of information.

See CD Formats

The Data Track Format

If your CD contains a data track, you need to select the format of the data. You can change the format while you are designing a CD, but as this affects the whole directory tree it is recommended to set the format first. Otherwise changes may take several minutes to complete.

The following list gives an overview of the currently supported formats. As other formats are continuously under development you should meet our homepage for up to date information.

FormatCharacteristicsTarget Operating Systems
ISO9660 - Level 1Filenames are up to eight upper case characters long and have an extensions of three characters. The depth of the directory tree is limited to eight. MS-DOS, Windows 3.11
ISO9660 - Level 2Filenames are up to 32 upper case characters long. The depth of the directory tree is limited to eight. Windows 95, Windows NT, MacOS
ISO9660 - Level 1 + Rockridge IPFilenames are up to 100 upper and lower case characters long. The directory depth is not limited and link loops are supported. Each file or directory has unix conform attributes, like user and group ID or access and execution rights. None Unix systems will display the ISO9660 - Level 1 based filename and cannot handle link loops. MS-DOS, Windows 3.11, Unix
ISO9660 - Level 2 + Rockridge IPSame as above except that none Unix systems will display the ISO9660 - Level 2 based filename and cannot handle link loops. Windows 95, Windows NT, MacOS, Unix
ISO9660 - Level 2 + NextStep ExtensionsThis extends ISO9660 - Level 2 + Rockridge IP by filenames by NeXT specific characters. This CDs may by unreadable by other Unix systems. Windows 95, Windows NT, NextStep, OPENSTEP 4.x
See Data Track Formats

The Volume Descriptor Tab

If the selected format is based on the ISO9660 specification, your may define the Volume Descriptor.

The descriptor consists of text and file identifiers. The text identifiers (Volume, Volume Set and System) contain characters depending on the selected format. The file identifiers (Abstract, Copyright and Bibliography) are titles of files in the CD's root directory and need not to be defined. The Publisher can be a text or a file identifier.

The only field interpreted by all operating systems is the Volume. You can change the volume also by editing the title of the CD in the Data view.

See Volume Descriptor See The Data Tab

The Data Tab

The Directory Tree

With ISO9660 based formats the data track contains a hierarchical file system, like a harddisc of your computer. You will define a directory tree that contains files of your system. You can do this like building a tree with NeXTs WorkspaceManager, except that you can use Cut, Copy and Paste from the menu to alter the tree. The order of the files in a directory depends of the selected data track format. Most operating systems reorder the files while displaying the a CD's content.

Virtual Folders

CDDesigner makes a difference between virtual folders, that will only appear on the CD, and folders that are determined by a link to your filesystem. You can only edit the contents of virtual folders which are displayed in a golden color. Choose to create a new virtual folder and type the new title.

Adding Files and Folders

To add existing files or folders to the tree, select them in your WorkspaceManager or another document of the CDDesigner and drag them over the folder's icon. If the cursor indicates to create a link, this link is always related to your filesystem and never to another document.

On a Unix system the following folders cannot be written to a CD: /private, /private/vm, /private/tftpboot, /Net, /private/Net, /usr/template/client/tftpboot, /usr/template/client/vm and /usr/template/client/Net.

Changing the Contents of a Determined Directory

If you want to alter the contents of a folder which is a link to a directory, you need to virtualize it. Select the folder and choose .

Using Cut, Copy and Paste

To edit the tree you can use all items from the menu. You can copy virtual folders, links to your filesystems and directories or files that are determined by this links. To paste you must select a virtual folder; the copied entries will be added as files or subdirectories to it.

Opening a File

To open a file, choose or double click on its icon. To select a file in your WorkspaceManager choose .

Checking the Tree

scans the whole directory tree and reports all files and folders that may cause an error.

See Error handling

Inspectors

Choose to open the inspector. CDDesigner has three types of inspectors: For the selection's attributes, for any processing and for its format extensions. The CD's default attribute inspector displays the CD's size and the number of tracks.

Attributes of ISO9660 Based Data Tracks

Select the Volume Descriptor tab and open the attribute inspector (Command-1). This inspector does not display any content of the CD but allows to manage CDDesigner's behavior to common errors.

An entry is inconsistent if a file content changes while building an image in a way that cannot be handled automatically. If you select `Cancel' CDDesigner will stop any further action. Select `Ignore' to skip those files and `Ask User' to open a panel for each file.

An entry is inaccessible if you cannot access a file or directory for any reason, e.g. you do not have the permission to read it. If you select `Cancel' CDDesigner will stop any further action. Select `Ignore' to skip those files and `Ask User' to open a panel for each file.

Format specific errors, like link loops or deep directory trees in ISO9660 - Level 1, will always stop the building of an image and be reported.

See Error handling

Format Extensions of ISO9660 Based Data Tracks

Select the Volume Descriptor tab and open the attribute inspector (Command-3). All ISO9660 based formats allow to write an optional path table. This option should always be selected. You can also define that empty directories should be skipped but in general you can keep them. If the format is extended by Rock Ridge you can setup the default file attributes.

Use `Default User, Group and Permissions only' to force any file or directory to adapt the default values. Otherwise the attributes are taken from the original files, but the write options are always disabled. As CDs are normally used by different systems you should use the default settings. Note: Files and directories having other values than these defaults may be invisible to NextStep/OpenStep.

See Permissions

Attributes of Files and Folders

The attribute inspector displays the original title and the title used on the CD for the selected file or folder. The used title is based on the original title and depending on the data track format. Whenever you edit a title you will edit the original one. The used title is always processed by CDDesigner and cannot be altered directly.

This inspector can also display the content of a selected link and the size of a file or directory. The size of a directory is the sum of the sizes of all files in it's whole subtree. Use the Clac Size button to read the whole tree and calculate the size of an directory.

See Documents See Inspector

Format Extensions of Files and Folders

ISO9660 based formats allow to make files and directories invisible. Choose the hide option for the entry that should not be visible. Some operating systems will show these files but will not allow to read their contents.

If the format is extended by Rock Ridge, the inspector shows additional attributes.

The displayed values are always set automatically and cannot be altered. If you have disabled the default setting of user, group or permissions, you can take the default values by hitting the `Set to default' button.

See ISO9660 See Rock Ridge See Permissions

The Audio Tab

Select the tab .

To add audio tracks to your CD select a Sound in your WorkspaceManager and drag it to the documents window. Use the items of the menu to cut, copy or paste an audio track.

To change the order of the tracks, select a single track and drag it to the new position.You can also read a CD and reorder, add or remove audio tracks. See Reading and Copying a CD. Audio tracks which were read from a CD cannot be cut or copied. Use to remove those audio tracks.

Open the attribute inspector (Command-1) to play a sound. Sounds located on a CD will be played via your sound device, or sound card.

See Audio Tracks

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