So, iTunes, by default, rips and encodes CDs to m4a (MPEG-4 audio w/AAC), which is based on the QuickTime file format.
I'd ripped a bunch of my CDs to .m4a when I had iTunes on the laptop provided by my employment at WPI, but I had to give that laptop back when I got laid off in early 2004. I still had the m4a files, though, and preferred not to have to re-rip those CDs if possible.
XMMS, the best of a less than stellar breed of music players, didn't know m4a, however. There're a couple of plugins out there that kinda try to fill the gap, but none of them seem to quite make it. So I, being unemployed and thus possessed of much time, took up the various widely-distributed bases of code and attempted to forge a plugin out of them which was up to my own standards. I think I did pretty well.
I'm making my libm4a xmms plugin freely available for use. Thus far, a few friends have tried it successfully, on both FreeBSD and Linux, so it's possible that I've managed to make it properly cross-platform. If anyone who finds this has problems with it, I'd appreciate any improvements that could be provided. Suggestions are welcome.