Re: [sc-dev] Re: [sc-users] Why can't SynthDefs be archived?

[Ioannis Zannos <iani@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 23 Nov 2003, James McCartney wrote:

I am using SynthDef to create automatic guis. I have
not looked at SynthDesc in detail, so I do not know
if it has all the information I need. Anyway, since
SynthDef has all the info I need, why use one extra
class SynthDesc?  

> why is writing the SynthDef better than writing the .scsyndef ?  

It is an admittedly small, but possibly cool improvement: The moment
you register a SynthDef with a Session you are guaranteed that: 
-The SynthDef will be present in the server - regardless of local or 
remote
-You can have an automatic gui from the SynthDef (given eventual 
 ineviable user-defined specs for parameters and type of 
 arguments, i.e. controls, buffers etc. )
-Once you save the Session per menu-command or code, 
 all your SynthDefs will be in one file together with any
 currently open guis, and can be reloaded as _one_
 session configuration from _one_ file. 


> If I 
> worked some more on it, I think I could have SynthDesc recreate the 
> SynthDef from the .scsyndef.

For now a bit academic, but in the long run it will be 
a good thing to have, for example to know what that synthdef
is that is running right now on the server (send it back to the
lang via OSC).  As said, at some point, I'll have a graphical
representation of SynthDefs, so one can see the structure
in detail, even if the SynthDef function code is not present.

At this stage, all that is needed is to change that part of 
one line in SynthDef-initTopoSort. Thats a tiny change.
I've done it in my lib by overwriting the method, but it'd 
be good if that made its way to the official SC release. 

What would be _really_ good to have, is the server also
send back the name of the synthdef in response to 
n_query when the node is a Synth.  So you can reconstruct
and display the current node tree fully. If no one does
it, I'll have a go at it myself some time. 

Iannis Zannos
---------
> 
> On Nov 23, 2003, at 9:37 AM, Ioannis Zannos wrote:
> 
> >  You can reconstruct (possibly graphic!) representations
> > for viewing from the SynthDef.
> 
> I just don't see why the SynthDef is useful. You can reconstruct 
> everything from the .scsyndef file because the server has to do that. 
> You said that maybe you don't have a .scsyndef file because you sent it 
> instead of writing the file and so you want to save the SynthDef. But 
> why is writing the SynthDef better than writing the .scsyndef ?  If I 
> worked some more on it, I think I could have SynthDesc recreate the 
> SynthDef from the .scsyndef.
> 
> 

-- 
Iannis Zannos
Research Director
Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology
Music Department / MAT,
University of California, Santa Barbara,
Santa Barbara, California 93106

Tel: (805) 893-8352
Fax: (805) 893-7194

http://www.create.ucsb.edu/~iani/