Your comments made me think, why can't Csound treat a zip file like a directory? Then a piece could be a "package" and the csd or orc and sco, the MIDI files, the samples and SoundFonts, etc., all could be zipped up together for handling and delivery.

Regards,
Mike

-----Original Message-----
>From: Steven Yi 
>Sent: Oct 20, 2006 1:57 AM
>To: Developer discussions 
>Subject: Re: [Cs-dev] Search paths
>
>Hi Anthony,
>
>I was never fond of the idea of embedding binary data in CSD files as
>I never understood what anyone gained from it. If I want to study a
>CSD that has lots of binary files embedded in it, it's only going to
>slow down a text editor to open. I'd much prefer files be zipped up as
>a package separately than to have one gigantic text file so I can see
>what files are included rather than try to intuit that by reading the
>CSD. It's also easier to test and debug a CSD when you can check the
>individual parts.  The only thing is packaging everything, but it
>seems like such a small positive to me compared to all of the
>negatives (IMO).
>
>steven
>
>
>On 10/20/06, Anthony Kozar  wrote:
>> The functionality appears to have been around since at least Csound 4.07 but
>> hardly anyone seems to know about it (and I have never seen anyone _use_ it
>> except for development & testing).
>>
>> The tag  can be used to embed any type of file into a .CSD file --
>> orchestra includes, midi files, audio files, analysis files, etc.  Probably
>> the reason it has never really been used though is that the file has to be
>> encoded using "Base64 encoding."  This is simply a way of turning any binary
>> (or text) file into a text-only format.  Base64 is a standard way of sending
>> email attachments because email only really allows text.
>>
>> Csound has been able to read Base64-encoded files for a long time but only
>> with version 5.00 did it start to include two standard utilities (written by
>> Istvan Varga) for performing base64 encoding and for wrapping everything up
>> nicely with a bow in a .CSD file for you.
>>
>>  is described here:
>>
>> http://csounds.com/manual/html/CommandUnifileFormat.html#id2861206
>>
>> The makecsd utility will do both the base64 encoding and the CSD
>> construction for you and is described here:
>>
>> http://csounds.com/manual/html/makecsd.html
>>
>> I do not know for certain which Csound 5 distributions actually include this
>> utility -- I hope that they all do.
>>
>> I can send you an example CSD from Istvan if you wish.
>>
>> Anthony Kozar
>> anthonykozar AT sbcglobal DOT net
>>
>>
>> Art Hunkins wrote on 10/19/06 4:36 PM:
>>
>> > OK, this is a new one for me:
>> >
>> >> You can embed your samples and all other needed
>> >> files directly into a CSD and let Csound automagically handle extracting
>> >> them and finding them.  There has not been a need to set any environment
>> >> variables or to cd to the right directory under these circumstances for a
>> >> long time.
>> >
>> > Please point me to information on how to do this. A search of the Csound
>> > help file doesn't turn up anything for "embed" or "samples." This is how I
>> > should probably distribute my composition that uses samples ("What's in a
>> > Name?").
>> >
>> > Art Hunkins
>>
>>
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Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642
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