Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Quasimodo (Was: Re: LADSPA GUI)
From: Paul Barton-Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: pe maalis 10 2000 - 11:23:26 EST
>May I suggest python bindings (strong OOP commitment, simple C/C++ wraps,
>gtk frontend, ...) ? (I thought there was a thread about that kind of
>musical languages here but I don't remember what emerged - if anything).
I am not opposed to python, but I don't think that any general purpose
language is appropriate. Why ? First of all, you are not allowed to
use any part of the language other than the control flow and
scoping. That is, all of python's cool functionality is irrelevant and
illegal when writing a module definition. How so ? Because of the
second reason: the module is not executed by a Python interpreter, but
is compiled down to something that Quasimodo's DSP simulator can
execute. You get the if/then/else, for, while, and function definition
stuff, but one hardly needs all of Python for this :)
In general, a language that cannot (reasonably) easily have its parser
reimplemented is off-limits to Quasimodo.
Guile and maybe java might offer a way out of this, by providing
access to the parse tree. In the case of both languages, we'd get some
benefits, but not much is you assume that the alternative is a sort of
"mini C".
If I was at a university, I would be reading old papers on language
design for music synthesis, and what was learnt. The Music N series is
definitely not the be-all-and-end-all of such things.
>It would be fine if you would setup a Quasimodo theme micro howto to let
>people make themes for quasimodo, as they already exist. I would like to
>contibute pixmaps, as I already did in early quasimodo stages (unfortunately
>they were not choosen).
Good point. I should make a note to do this.
>(4) the
>> fact that its a cutting edge system that is hard for other people to
>> compile who are not weathered programmers and understand how to work
>> with its myriad of library dependencies.
>>
>
>Definitely. People just would like to :
>
>rpm -ivh Quasimodo.i386.rpm
>quasimodo
It will never happen. Quasimodo's design uses lots of other
libraries. Its like GNOME in that respect. You will certainly be able
to say:
rpm -ivh gtk-quasimodo.i386.rpm
but it won't work unless you've installed all the other libraries,
including the dreaded libltdl.
>Sure, but by the way, what CPU power is "suitable" for a minimal use of
>quasimodo (just a few modules necessary to make a basic song) ?
there's no real answer to that. you could ask the same question of
Csound. without an idea of what you want it do, its almost impossible
to predict. for example, it can simulate several hundred oscillators
on a 200MHz PII, but thats unlikely to be of much interest to someone
who wants real-time cross-synthesis (not yet possible on any
x86-compatible chip). With a 200MHz PII, you can do some fun
synthesis. With a 450MHz PII, you can get a decent polyphonic synth
with moderately complex synthesis techniques.
--p
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