Hey that seems an interesting idea, but I´d rather suggest to concentrate on
improving the efficiency of existing software rather than porting it to another (not
multiplatform?) implementation. I´m too used to Csound to learn another language to
do approximately the same thing.

Paul Barton-Davis wrote:

> A new tarball release of the ever-more stable Quasimodo is available
> from:
>         http://www.op.net/~pbd/quasimodo/
>
> Here's the NEWS:
>
>         * all Csound generators ported (not all work)
>

--
Josep M Comajuncosas
C/ Circumval.lacio 75  08790 Gelida - Penedes
Catalunya - SPAIN
home phone : 93 7792243 / 00 34 3 7792243

Csound page at http://members.tripod.com/csound/

Josep M Comajuncosas  wrote:

   [ Re Quasimodo ]

>Hey that seems an interesting idea, but I'd rather suggest to
>concentrate on improving the efficiency of existing software rather
>than porting it to another (not multiplatform?) implementation. I'm
>too used to Csound to learn another language to do approximately the
>same thing.

I don't think you understand. Quasimodo "is" Csound. It uses the same
language. It uses the same opcode source code (with some minor
tweaks). It uses the same score file language. It so happens that it
can also support other languages too, but thats not relevant to your
point. 

There isn't a reasonable way to "improve" Csound to run as a
multithreaded application without tearing it to pieces (call Analog
Devices if you want to talk to them about what thats like). If its not
multithreaded, it can't ever have a decent UI and run in real time.
It also can't use multi-processor systems effectively, and such
systems are now very competitively priced (e.g. my dual PII-450 with
the 9GB of the fastest SCSI disks around, CD-RW, 21" monitor, Jaz
drive and SCSI tape drive cost less than my wife's 300MHz G3
powerbook). 

As for multiplatform, Quasimodo already runs on more platforms than
any Windows or Mac program. It just doesn't run on Windows or Mac
platforms. Thats because (1) those operating systems are proprietary
and I don't write software for proprietary operating systems and (2)
those operating systems don't offer all the services needed by a
sophisticated real time multithreaded application.

If the Csound source code offered a more incremental way to move to
the kind of architecture that a program like Quasimodo needs, I would
not have reimplemented the language(s), but it doesn't. You can make
tweaks here and there, but its fundamentally limited by the
assumptions that Vercoe made when he started, and by the coding
approach used since then.

--p