Re: arpeggiator & Tcl

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:10:56AM +0100, Koen wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> midish is wonderful software, thanks for sharing it!
> 
> i was wondering if anybody attempted to write an arpeggiator (to step
> through the notes of a chord in sequence, based on an input note) in midish,
> before i try. i'm not sure yet about how i would design it using midish,
> maybe someone already has some suggestions before i start digging... 
>

Hi,

I'm not aware of anywone working on it.

If you start working on it let me know and/or if you need
explanations. AFAICS, most of the required infrastructure to
implement an arpegiator is already there.

> Alexandre, i also had a question for you. the midish language resembles Tcl
> a lot i think. i use and like Tcl a lot, and wonder if you where influenced
> by it while making midish. if so, what did make you chose for implementing
> an interpreter yourself (versus using a readily available Tcl interpreter
> and extending it with MIDI functionality -- using C or Tcl)?
> 

Tcl is a real language, while the midish language is a
simplistic shell-like interface (inspired by Korn Shell and
C).  Unlike Tcl, it's not for real programming, it's more to
just call C code inside midish. Initially, I checked whether
it would be practical to borrow code from Korn Shell but
rolling a new interpreter seemed simpler.

Building an interpreter (or extending an existing one) that
could expose midish internal data types and that could run
quickly in real-time seems very difficult and, i guess,
would lead to complex code.

Extending Tcl (or any other language), to just call C
code inside midish wouldn't bring new functionality, but I
guess this could give more friendly interface to people
using Tcl, or fit into existing Tcl code.

-- Alexandre