<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="guide"
id="glossary">
<info>
<link type="topic" xref="index#extra"/>
<desc>Technical and streamtuner2 specific terminology and jargon.</desc>
</info>
<title>Glossary</title>
<terms>
<item>
<title>Channel</title>
<p>Each tab in the main window is a "channel". It represents one
music directory service.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Stream</title>
<p>"stream" is a technical term which means continuosly flowing
data. MP3 radio music for example is streamed, because it's not
just a time-limited audio file, but unending (unless you stop
the player or paying your ISP).</p>
<p>In streamtuner2 the terms "stream" and radio "station" are used interchangably.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Genre</title>
<p>Music genres are represented as "categories" in the left
pane. Every channel groups its music stations into some
structure.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>URL</title> <p>URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator"
and simply refers to something retrievable hyperlinks or web addresses like
http://www.example.org/. Radio stations/streams are stored as URLs internally.
The more generic hipster term "URI" (long superseded by "IRI" anyway)
makes less sense in this context, because ISBN: or MailTo: references aren't
overly useful for such purposes.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Radio</title>
<p>Plays music. Sometimes interrupted by advertisements.
</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Favicons</title> <p>Favicons are small symbols for
websites. Most website should have one. (ST2 downloads
favicons either per menu command or automatically for the
current station once you hit play.) </p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Cache</title>
<p>Radio lists are kept in "cache" files for efficiency reasons.
To not redownload stream information on every category or channel
flip, streamtuner2 saves this data. This avoids time consuming
server requests.
</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Python</title>
<p>Python is a programming language. It provides extensive constructs and
many functions, yet is easy to learn. See python.org and Google.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>MP3</title>
<p>MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) is an audio file format, part of the wider MPEG (Motion Picture
Expert Group) video format. It's the most widespread format in use today,
however doesn't provide the highest audio quality..</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>OGG Vorbis</title>
<p>OGG is a multimedia file format. Vorbis is an audio compression format.
OGG Vorbis was developed as alternative to MP3. It's often of higher
quality at lower file sizes, and isn't encumbered by US software patents.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>MIME</title>
<p>For classification of web and email content, two-factor descriptions like
"audio/ogg" are advised. These are called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
types, and are used on the web in lieu of file extensions (which URL resources don't have).
Note that ST2 uses the MP3 type wrong; it's officially
audio/mpeg, and not audio/mp3 as shown in the settings window.</p>
</item>
<item>
<title>Bitrate</title>
<p>Audio streams are compressed with exactness loss. This can be heard
at lower "bitrates". For MP3 files any music with less than 100 kbit/s
starts to hiss, while OGG Vorbis still sounds okay at a datarate of
e.g. 64 kbit per second. So while bitrate basically means file size per duration,
it's commonly used as quality indicator.</p>
</item>
</terms>
<section id="filetypes">
<title>Filetypes</title>
<p>Besides audio formats MP3 and OGG, there are also station/streaming link files.
These are often downloaded from the directory servers, before your music player gets activated.</p>
</section>
</page>