Re: [sc-users] Compiled language similar to sc ?

[James Harkins <jamshark70@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 5:39 PM, Josh Parmenter <josh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In addition to what James says, there is a reason (other then speed) that C
> and C++ are used so extensively, and that is since it has such a large base
> of use, things like C compilers will exist for some time. One of the things
> that always has me worried about using a language like SuperCollider is, at
> what point will I no longer be able to execute code in it? Certainly, since
> the underlying base is in C, I imagine I will be able to run some version
> for some time, but it is rather limited in its life.

To some extent, this depends on the user base. Since it's open source,
it can (theoretically) continue to exist as long as people care about
keeping it up. csound follows a frankly archaic design model
(mainframe batch processing), but it ain't dead yet because people are
still using it and driving its development.

What would really help here is detailed documentation of server and
language internals, so that if it's necessary to reimplement in the
future under a totally different OS architecture (which may not exist
yet), it would be easier than reverse engineering the (sparsely
commented) sources.

> What I have wanted to do for some time, actually, is create a way to take a
> chunk of code that I consider finished, and actually render it out into C or
> C++. Then I can have the source code for a finished piece, and save it and
> compile it. This is a pretty big task though...

I think Faust's model is better: a higher-level abstraction that can
be compiled into a variety of contexts. Imagine a function description
of a "piece" that could be compiled into SC, or ChucK, or csound, or
nyquist, or *gasp* MSP, or the next big thing that hasn't been
invented yet.

hjh


-- 
James Harkins /// dewdrop world
jamshark70@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.dewdrop-world.net

"Come said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted,
Sing me the universal."  -- Whitman

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