On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 14:51:21 -0400, "James Lehman"
wrote:

It is my understanding that Redbook Audio is a digital audio data storage
system that does not have the likes of a file system, like you would find on
a data CD. It is more like the grooves on an old LP. The original idea of a
CD audio player was a digital extension of the idea of the LP. It spins.
It's round. It has a hole in the middle. The tracks on a disk need to be
accessible while the disk is spinning and in any rotation so you can cue a
track from somewhere near the beginning, not necessarily the exact same
sample every time; much like dropping the needle in the darker grooves on an
LP. Because there is no file system, it takes some special care to extract
the audio as a pure digital stream.

So you maintain ripping a CD is just a synonym for playing it?

I don't see any particular problem in reading data from any chosen
point in any file on any non-linear medium - CD, floppy or hard drive.
There can be a rather looser attitude to error-tolerance. on an audio
CD, I suppose. Does this have relevance to it's unique data
structure?

I first heard the term "Rip" meaning extracting the music from
computer games, when it was integral to a data file, not stored
separately and accessibly. Now I see it used in reference to getting
audio and/or video data off media in a way other than that intended by
the maker.