Michael Gogins writes:

>Csound could be put firmly back at the leading edge of the state of the art
>if:
>
>Csound gets plugin unit generators and function tables with a SIMPLE, I mean
>REALLY simple, API.

this already exists for unit generators. I don't understand how you
could want a simpler interface than the one they have
already. Someone, I think it was you, actually allowed the Windows
version to dynamically load opcodes. What more are you thinking of ?

as for function tables, they are close, but the routines in Csound
rely so totally on global variables that a plugin API for generators
can't easily be concocted. I was suprised how much I had to rewrite of
the table stuff for Quasimodo.  But the way function tables are used
within opcodes, for example, doesn't suffer from these problems.

>Csound gets double-precision signal processing (Buzz and Generator use
>floats).

this has been discussed to death already.

>Csound gets low-latency MIDI and audio input and output that works more or
>less the same on its major platforms.

this is a function of the platforms. the Linux version, for example,
has approx 1ms latency for MIDI and audio input you ask it the right
questions. the idea that Csound should try to take these matters into
its own hands is terrifying.

>Csound gets an at least semi-snazzy GUI including unit generator wiring.

What cross-platform GUI kit do you propose for this ? Let me guess, it
begins with a "J", right ?

>Csound can act as a VST plugin.

I could care less :) But I understand the interest in this.

>What is needed here is a reasonable compromise between the power and
>amenability for experimentation of a bare-bones piece of academic UNIX
>software, and a user-friendly GUI and user-extensible plugin architecture,
>with realtime performance AND non-realtime soundfile rendering. This is the
>wonderful musical instrument that is evolving before our very eyes (and
>ears), and Csound already contains all the necessary guts for the thing.

Michael - I'm in full agreement with you, with the major exception
that I have no interest in seeing Csound subsumed into a Java
environment. I think that you see Java as a way to go truly
cross-platform, which is admirable; I see Java as a way to limit the
possibilites and hurt performance. I also don't share your interest in
Windows and Mac platforms, for reasons I've outlined elsewhere, and so
you have a set of goals with respect to things like VST that I don't
share. 

However, for reasons I also outlined in a previous message, I don't
believe that Csound as it is currently written is the right place to
begin from. The opcodes are pure gold, but the rest of the scaffolding
that holds them together is not what we should be working with. Thats
at least part of why I wrote/am writing Quasimodo.