Winamp breaks mIRC scripts, and maybe its API and conventions too

[p2puser]

Disclaimer: I am not a programmer. I'm just someone who has been using Winamp since 1.x and has been on IRC for years.

I did a clean install of Windows XP, and installed Winamp 5.54. After restoring mIRC from backups, the scripts that rely on Winamp didn't work like they used to so I tried to fix them. One of the things I did while troubleshooting the problem was renaming my Winamp folder in Program Files, and restoring an older version from my backups. The backups worked just fine.

I tried to figure out why the new version didn't work where older versions had no problems, and one of the things I found is that Winamp used to save Winamp.m3u in its program folder, but now it saves the file in %appdata%\Winamp.m3u. This causes the file to be created somewhere within "Documents and Settings" or "Users" in Windows, and breaks many applications in the process.

I fixed the problem in Windows XP by creating a special shortcut to Winamp.m3u in the Winamp directory. To do this, open the Command Prompt or go to Start Menu > Run... and type:

code:
fsutil hardlink create "c:\Program Files\Winamp"\Winamp.m3u "c:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Winamp\winamp.m3u"

Vista, Linux and other operating systems have more elegant ways to do this, such as symlinks.

EDITORIAL: I'm both surprised and disappointed to see fundamental changes in Winamp being implemented within minor updates. I can't help but think this is part of a bigger problem within Winamp's development. Common sense and community input have been taken out of the update equation. Versions of the program are released with far less testing than goes on in other popular apps. Changes are made without notice or transitions. Even if I'm way off base with my mIRC and Winamp workaround, the problem I encountered shouldn't exist. It should have been flagged in beta testing.

It's not the only questionable issue. Reason would've pleaded for a way to have a playlist tab in Bento without having to install hacked skins. Users should be able to choose the types of files they want Winamp to handle without going thru long lists of codecs no one's used for years. Etc, etc, etc.

I still can't find another Win32 program that does everything I demand from Winamp. I'm starting to think I should save the Winamp installer's files as I might find myself in the bandwagon of praise for old versions compared to newer ones.