I totally agree with you about the faults of the old format, but there is the question of backward compatibility. My comments were directed mostly to Richard Boulanger in hopes of finding out whether there are analysis files on the CD-ROMs accompanying the Csound book, or something like that.

In general, a high degree of backward compatibility is a very strong point of Csound, which has enabled the building up over a period of almost two decades, a very long time in computing, of a large body of work that the community shares and which increases its musical potential. 

Therefore we should strive to preserve backward compatibility without, of course, being silly about it. If nobody ever uses a facility and no historical works require it, the need for backward compatibility can be questioned. We need to get a clear picture of whether losing the old format would break things that people are using or might well use.

I think most composers would tend to keep samples around, and could generate analysis files in the new format using their old orchestras or scripts if required. But we need to hear from the composers (and authors, like Boulanger).

Regards,
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Istvan Varga 
Sent: Jun 11, 2005 12:37 PM
To: csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Cs-dev] Removed old PVOC format

Michael Gogins wrote:

> I would assume that if the chapters involved reading
 > already created analysis files, the chapters would break.

That is, if the book comes with actual analysis files in the old
PVOC format ? The old format is not very portable, though, as it
depends on the MYFLT type used when compiling Csound, the word size
and endianness of the host machine, and possibly even structure
alignment.


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Michael and Istvan,

I have been teaching the pvoc chapter of the Csound Book this past  
week at Berklee and did find that the orchestras all still worked.
I usually do recommend that readers/users re-do the analyses before  
working with these instruments.  So, I don't think that we have  
broken anything and in fact, I am happy to see that the pvoc opcodes  
will work with .pvx analysis files now because there was a period in  
time when this was not the case, when Richard Karpen's chapter  
instruments only worked with .pvc files.

Richard

On Jun 11, 2005, at 2:34 PM, Michael Gogins wrote:

> I totally agree with you about the faults of the old format, but  
> there is the question of backward compatibility. My comments were  
> directed mostly to Richard Boulanger in hopes of finding out  
> whether there are analysis files on the CD-ROMs accompanying the  
> Csound book, or something like that.
>
> In general, a high degree of backward compatibility is a very  
> strong point of Csound, which has enabled the building up over a  
> period of almost two decades, a very long time in computing, of a  
> large body of work that the community shares and which increases  
> its musical potential.
>
> Therefore we should strive to preserve backward compatibility  
> without, of course, being silly about it. If nobody ever uses a  
> facility and no historical works require it, the need for backward  
> compatibility can be questioned. We need to get a clear picture of  
> whether losing the old format would break things that people are  
> using or might well use.
>
> I think most composers would tend to keep samples around, and could  
> generate analysis files in the new format using their old  
> orchestras or scripts if required. But we need to hear from the  
> composers (and authors, like Boulanger).
>
> Regards,
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Istvan Varga 
> Sent: Jun 11, 2005 12:37 PM
> To: csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [Cs-dev] Removed old PVOC format
>
> Michael Gogins wrote:
>
>
>> I would assume that if the chapters involved reading
>> already created analysis files, the chapters would break.
>>
>
> That is, if the book comes with actual analysis files in the old
> PVOC format ? The old format is not very portable, though, as it
> depends on the MYFLT type used when compiling Csound, the word size
> and endianness of the host machine, and possibly even structure
> alignment.
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.Net email is sponsored by: NEC IT Guy Games.  How far can  
> you shotput
> a projector? How fast can you ride your desk chair down the office  
> luge track?
> If you want to score the big prize, get to know the little guy.
> Play to win an NEC 61" plasma display: http://www.necitguy.com/?r=20
> _______________________________________________
> Csound-devel mailing list
> Csound-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel
>
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This SF.Net email is sponsored by: NEC IT Guy Games.  How far can  
> you shotput
> a projector? How fast can you ride your desk chair down the office  
> luge track?
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> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/csound-devel
>



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