🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi,

I'm working on an Audio tool that currently only
allows wav files as its input. Since compressed
formats like mp3 and wma seem to get more common
I thought that my program should also allow to import
f.e. mp3.

As I understand it all the compressed formats work via
a codec installed with the system that takes care of
decompressing the given file format.

What I actually want to do is:
When the user selects an mp3 file I want to convert
it to wav and then input it to my program so it can work
as it did before. If there is no codec available for the format
the file would be rejected.

Since I still don't really understand the Windows codec
management I would really appreciate any idea how
to do this. Does Windows XP natively support MP3?
Would I have to ask the user to install an MP3 codec,
like Lame f.e.? Can I use the Audio Compression Manager
to decode mp3 and wma f.e.?

thanks for any comment,
Nicki