Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.programmer:2093 rec.music.synth:4289
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!littlei!intelisc!omepd!uoregon!looney
From: looney@uoregon.uoregon.edu (Kevin Thomas Looney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,rec.music.synth
Subject: Re: MIDILisp for the Mac??
Keywords: LISP, MIDI
Message-ID: <2542@uoregon.uoregon.edu>
Date: 9 Aug 88 17:44:48 GMT
References: <132@falstaf.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Reply-To: looney@drizzle.UUCP (Kevin Thomas Looney)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 46


     I recently completed a thesis involving computers and music.  I
spent some time tracking down MIDI tools for it.  I do not have
a copy of MIDI LISP.  I also know that it was not avaiable for
public consumption last fall.  Stanford U. was using it however at
CCRMA for some programming classes they were teaching.  I talked to
Chris Chaffe over there some time ago, who gave me the name of the
developer in Paris who made MIDI-LISP (From what I understand, It is a
super-set of Le Lisp), the name escapes me presently.  Stanford had
a Beta-version, and were reluctant to let anything go without permission
from the developer.

     Some other options to consider:

     I purchased MIDI Pascal from Altech, and I also have Austin Developments
MIDI-Drivers.  Both have .REL files and may be linked to code that is linker
compatible with that format (I believe Allegro will be soon providing 
'Foreign Function' call capability to their Common LISP, providing a way
to link in .REL files).  I personally have been working on linking these
routines to a proprietary rule-based system here at the University of Oregon
called ORBS.  It is a Scheme (lexically scoped LISP) interpreter with
Object-Oriented programming, and it has the capacity to create multiple
Rule-based interpreters.  The Mac ported version of ORBS is written in 
Lightspeed C, thus it has the capacity  to link .REL files.

     In terms of my experience with the Altech and Austin Drivers,
The Altech ones provide fairly good documentation and I have had no problem
with them so far.  The Austin Drivers have little to no documentation (except
inline source doc) and no examples of usage.  They do however Time-Stamp
the incoming MIDI info (Altech MIDIPascal 2.0 does not, 3.0 in the near
future will).  The Austin Drivers are free (address was written in a newsletter
about a month ago) and the Altech drivers are under $100.

     There is at least one alternate language I know of available with
MIDI.  This is LOGO.  I believe Northwestern U may be using it (I'm not
sure, but I think Allegro may have developed it).  

     Does anybody else know about other programming languages that
speak MIDI?


==============================================================================
Kevin Looney
Looney@uoregon.edu
(503) 686-3473
=============================================================================