Re: Ada and MidiShare

["Stephane Richard" <stephane.richard@verizon.net>]

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"Dr. Justice" <sorry@no.spam.wanted> wrote in message
news:3f88cb3d$1@news.broadpark.no...
> Hi folks!
>
> I've decided that I want to try and use Ada for my next projects. I come
> from a background of mostly assembly, C and PL/SQL and wanting to move
into
> a "new and better" language for general computing I can not think of
> anything better than Ada. I'm convinced I'll have a nice adventure - you
can
> add two new users (a friend of mine as well) to the statisctics :-)
>
> For Ada to be really useful for me, I need windowing GUI, MIDI I/O, and
> ideally audio I/O as well. My platform is Windows (can use Linux too) and
> GNAT 3.15p, and I'd like to be able to build for all of Windows, Linux and
> MacOS (with a priority on Windows).
>
> GtkAda should do the GUI part nicely. Very nice kit it seems (I have yet
to
> ty it out in practice!).
>
> After much searching and reading on the web I understand that MIDI and
audio
> support is not readily available. It seems that Claw supports at least
> audio, but that is only for Windows. The audio support I'd want is very
> simple, just buffered streams to/from the audio inputs/outputs for
realtime
> recording and playback. Performance is not critical initially. I will
> continue my search for possible C libraries, but I'm pretty blank in this
> area (sound/MIDI on Win/Mac/Linux).
>
> For MIDI, the use of MidiShare (http://www.grame.fr/MidiShare/) may be a
> solution. I know MidiShare from programming the Soundart Chameleon and
like
> it a lot. It covers all the platforms in question. I will look into the
> possibilty of making a set of bindings (using C and gcc). Luckily for me,
it
> all resembles the Oracle, PL/SQL and C "way", which I have a bit of
> experience with.
>
> These are my general thoughts so far. I still have more research to do
> before I'm sure how I will proceed with respect to the MIDI/audio bits.
> Anyway, I will get on with my Ada self-education, and play some with C
> bindings.
>
> Having just these simple tools of MIDI and audio I/O could open up new
> possibilties for Ada, and attract new users, yes?
>
> I don't really have any specific Ada questions at this point, but I'm sure
> this group will be a useful resource from here.
>
> If there are others who share an interest in creating MIDI/audio
> applications using Ada, and want to discuss or cooperate on IO libraries,
or
> have any good pointers on these subjects, please let me know! As mentioned
I
> have done /much/ searching, so the most obvious hits for Ada/sound/MIDI on
> AllTheWeb,Google and Dejanews are covered.
>
>
> Regards,
>
>    Are Leistad
> --
>
>
>

Hi Are (and that friend of yours too :-) welcome aboard.

I'm also working on a MIDI project using ada so perhaps we can talk you and
I.

Since you have experience in C/C++ I can't help but suggest you go to my
website (http://www.adaworld.com), in the "Learning Center" under "Free
Books" and grab yourself a copy a copy of the pdf file called Ada Distilled
which teaches ada to namely C++ programmers.  You might find it invaluable.
-- 
St�phane Richard
"Ada World" Webmaster
http://www.adaworld.com