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From: pmy@vivaldi.acc.virginia.edu (Pete Yadlowsky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,rec.music.synth
Subject: Re: MIDILisp for the Mac??
Keywords: LISP, MIDI
Message-ID: <501@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 19 Aug 88 17:39:20 GMT
References: <132@falstaf.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <2542@uoregon.uoregon.edu> <6838@well.UUCP> <36255@aero.ARPA>
Sender: news@hudson.acc.virginia.edu
Reply-To: pmy@vivaldi.acc.Virginia.EDU (Pete Yadlowsky)
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Organization: University of Virginia, Charlottesville
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In article <36255@aero.ARPA> obrien@anpiel.UUCP (Michael O'Brien) writes:
>In article <6838@well.UUCP> csz@well.UUCP (Carter Scholz) writes:
>>In article <2542@uoregon.uoregon.edu> looney@drizzle.UUCP (Kevin Thomas Looney) writes:
>>>     Does anybody else know about other programming languages that
>>>speak MIDI?

>>Anyone
>>with more intelligence about programming languages, let us know here!

>Well, Steve Pope at ParcPlace Systems has what looks to be a
>fabulous MIDI system done in Smalltalk.  It'll run on a Mac II,
>and given the fact that the latest ParcPlace Systems Smalltalk
>a) supports user-written primitives, and b) runs under $1,000 on the
>Mac II, plus the fact that with Smalltalk, you get full source to
>the entire world, it looks like the ultimate "kickass" MIDI
>system to me.  I can't wait.

Sounds good, but this looks very much like a product already
available for Macs and Amigas: HMSL (Hierarchical Music Specification
Language). I know, I know, I've been bellowing from the rooftops
for this one, but it seems that many interested (or potentially
interested) persons have been missing the articles, judging from
net.questions.

HMSL is a Forth-based, object-oriented development environment
for real-time experimentation, composition and performance.
Basically, the programmer creates objects..."players", "instruments",
"shapes" (loosely, scores)...and arranges them in hierarchical
structures which define and control the interactions of these objects
with the outside world and with each other.
Because it's built on Forth, it's as extensible as the programmer
wants it to be. Source is provided. It handles MIDI quite well,
but is in no way restricted to MIDI, and can be made to control
or respond to any sort of hardware you'd care to connect to your
computer. I know of one person who's using HMSL to control kinetic
sculpture.

Price: $150 plus cost of Forth for your machine. For complete
info, write:

	Frog Peak Music
	P.O. Box 9911
	Oakland, CA   94613

There's a phone number, too, but I don't have it handy. Let me know if
you want it. The authors also support an HMSL BBS. I'll try to answer
questions if they aren't too general. This thing is large and complex,
and is difficult to discuss with those who may be unfamiliar with Forth
or object-oriented programming.

No affiliation.
Peter M. Yadlowsky
Academic Computing Center
University of Virginia
pmy@vivaldi.acc.Virginia.EDU