| As the year is ending I really think we need to review where we are on
the csound5 project.
In Jun I wrote the following list of tasks:
a) Parser -- expected to start work in mid July
b) Sound file library
c) Completion of Portaudio v19
d) Software bus
e) Check mac build
f) Check Windows build
g) Reorganisation of opcodes again
h) separation of API
Current state:
a) has had little effort (I lost the summer in MSc students) but I
think it is getting worse. I have the design for the parser which can
have user-supplied opcodes but I have not have space to build it.
b) We still need to have a consensus on the sound library. Options
include de Castro's sndlib and Dobson's PortSF
c) I backed off portaudio v19 as I could not get the blocking output
to run. At present v18 is working at least in part. This needs to be
fixed.
d) The need for a software bus is getting stronger, but I have no
proposals of a design, let alone any code. I really want to remove
the FLTK widgets and the controls outside the main system, and replace
by generic bus opcodes
e) I can build csound5 on OSX so at present I consider this closed
f) I find the Windows situation confused. I use MSVC on Windows, but
there seems to be a move towards gcc. I am trying to keep out of
this!
g) Moving of opcodes to loadable is largely done, but there still
remains examples that can be moved
h) The API seems to have had some development, and the loadable opcodes
all now use a single interface. I need to move the base code to
position of re-entrance.
I will also add
j) Replacing all the MIDI by PortMIDI would be a good idea. I am not
a MIDI user except rarely, so I am looking for a MIDI person to look
into this.
k) I want to build a Linux version which uses a separate front end,
probably FLTK-based, to show the shape of the system. Ideally I would
like Csound to exist only as a DLL/.so with a simple command line and
a simple GUI as part of the main distribution.
I am not very happy with the current state. A great deal of effort
seems to have been given to configuration, and comparatively much less
to creating a system
==John ffitch |