Hi Ben,

Didn't have a chance to reply on the blue list, but regarding Silence,
the Silence composition system is currently a part of CsoundVST.  In
it's prior versions, it existed once as a Java graphical application
that used a tree editor to represent the composition nodes and their
hierarchy visually and had custom UI editors for each node type.  That
was later changed to a Lua-based scripting system and then moved to
using Python.  So the Silence system itself, the compositional nodes
and all, exists today as the composition node classes which come in
CsoundVST and are scriptable in Python.

I for a long time didn't realize until Michael came by and explained
that documentation for the Silence classes exists by running doxygen
in the Csound5 root directory (if you've downloaded Csound5 from
source).  It's very very helpful to have that information if you're
going to try to work with the classes.

BTW: I'm not sure if you have time but could you explain the
ItemStream concept from Common Music?  The last time I had a working
common music system on my computer was a couple years ago and when I
got into it I remember having problems with the way it abstracted some
ideas about time and music; it'd be great to hear your thoughts on it.

Thanks and also Happy Holidays to all!
steven



On 12/21/05, Ben McAllister <benmca@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>  I've been lurking since 1996, but rarely write - so, first, THANK YOU to
> you devs for csound5 - I'm a software dev myself during the day and
> understand the investment you are making.  Thanks so much!
>
>  My question:
>  In an effort to reinvigorate my Python skills, I'm going to port my
> favorite bits of Common Music 1.x to Python, particularly the ItemStream
> concept and a few other things I frequently use.  As many of you know, it's
> a good fit within Steven Yi's excellent program blue, and the last drop of
> csound5 included a python wrapper for the Csound API.  I'm excited as well
> about the GUI-building possibilities between this wrapper and the Python
> ugens Maurizio Umberto Puxeddu contributed.  But I digress...
>
>  Looking for starting points within the csound world, I've found the
> following: athenaCl, Steven's Orchestra Library in the last drop of blue,
> and some in csoundVST.   I'm playing catchup to a certain degree. There are
> a few examples in the last release of csoundVST which I saw, and I
> understand there is more in Silence, but it appears to no longer be hosted
> at csounds.com.  Is it still available anywhere? Someone is using the name
> at sourceforge :(  I noticed that Michael Gogin's site is down due to it's
> popularity, so perhaps it's there waiting to be downloaded.
>
>  So, csound community, do you know of any other
> algorithmic-composition-related python resources which I might find useful
> in this endeavor?  I'm wondering if someone hasn't already invented this
> wheel.  I'd much rather get back to building instruments and making music ;)
>  Seriously, I'd rather build on something others are using than reinvent the
> wheel.
>
>  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Seattle,
>  Ben McAllister
>  http://www.listenfaster.com
>
>