How to Use IDFEDIT to Create MIDI Instrument Definition Files

• Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK) versions 3.51, 4.0

SUMMARY

Idfedit.exe is a software tool and sample included in the Win32 SDK. You can use it to create MIDI Instrument Definition Files (IDF) for the MIDI Mapper in Windows 95. The Windows 95 MIDI Mapper also supports the Windows version 3.1 Configuration file format (CFG) for backwards compatibility, but Microsoft recommends that any new MIDI Mapper configurations be created using the IDF file format. The Windows NT version 3.51 MIDI Mapper does not yet support the IDF file format, so it still requires the old CFG file format.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use Idfedit to create new IDF files or to edit existing ones. To change values in Definition Data fields, double click the data field, and enter the new data. It is important to note that some of the fields have restrictions on the kind of data they accept. The following table summarizes the required data types for each field:

Field                      Data type

IDF Version                hexadecimal

IDF Creator                hexadecimal

Manufacturer               ASCII text string

Product Name               ASCII text string

Supports General MIDI      boolean values (expressed as TRUE,
                           FALSE, YES, NO, 1 or 0)

Supports SysEx Messages    boolean values (expressed as TRUE, FALSE,
                           YES, NO, 1 or 0)

Other than the source code provided for Idfedit, there is currently no additional source of information about the IDF file format. The sample code is located in the \Mstools\Samples\Mm\Win95\Idfedit directory.