What is the best programming language for writing MIDI-interactive musical application that would be run on MAC and on Windows?
I've written cross platform (Mac OS X and Windows) MIDI applications using C++. I used the RtMidi for MIDI I/O which was incredibly easy to get going (on every platform just it just worked out of the box). The advantage of C++ is that you can use native GUIs on each platform, but if you're not already into C++ I'd say a cross platform project is a pretty ambitious first project.
One possibility is .NET (C# or VB.Net), which runs on Windows (of course) and Mac (thanks to Mono). The downside is that .NET does not have any native support for MIDI, so you'd have to tap into two different native APIs for MIDI.
Java is another possibility, since it has a number of MIDI-supporting libraries available. Your UI is bound to look pretty terrible, though.
Python has substantial support for MIDI and runs on Mac and Win.
pygame.midi
PyPortMidi
PythonMIDI
pyrtmidi
For both mac and windows I would suggest Java. Midi is just a protocol so any language can do it. A good framework will speed things up a lot. Java has frameworks to work with Midi and other multimedia sources.
PortMidi is another popular cross-platform MIDI library. Qt is a nice cross-platform Framework, GUI and utility library.
It's an old thread, but nowdays you can use .NET. I mean official cross-platform .NET from Microsoft, not Mono. In this case I can recommend my library – DryWetMIDI. Its core part (working with MIDI files, processing MIDI data and so on) is cross-platform for any OS supported by .NET.
As for working with MIDI devices, this API supports Windows and macOS (that's what you need). Full documentation of the library availabale here: https://melanchall.github.io/drywetmidi. There you can find full API reference and help articles. For example, overview article on working with MIDI devices.
The library is distributed via NuGet package and can be installed via NuGet on both Windows and macOS.
Related
I have a friend who has an entry-level background in programming and is looking for a free GUI framework (IDE, GUI toolkit and GUI designer ) that:
He can use on Mac OS X to build Windows applications
It's very easy to use.
He is not interested in becoming a programmer, but would like to build an application for his work (not CS-related).
What are some good GUI frameworks/prog. languages he can use?
Qt including Qt Creater and Qt Designer is worth a try.
Especially, if your app should finally run cross-platform, on phones or on other embedded devices. Qt natively supports C++, but can also be used with 3rd-party extensions with Python (PyQt) and probably other languages.
On a Mac I have to recommend making Cocoa applications in Xcode written in Objective-C. Xcode is free to download and use, you pay if you want to submit applications to the Mac App Store.
I personally use Xcode every day and I think it's a great IDE. Currently has compiler support for Obj-C, C++, C and maybe more (not sure). More importantly for your needs, Xcode does a great job of integrating your code with its build in "interface builder" to help you quickly and easily create a nice UI.
NOTE: Xcode includes a new compiler feature (ARC) Automatic Reference Counting which is create for a new user. You can learn the language without having to worry about manual memory management.
Your friend should consider using PySide, a Python binding for the Qt GUI framework already mentioned.
With PySide you can use the Qt tools to create GUI elements interactively
and code your application logic in Python, which is a language often appreciated by non-programmers (and programmers too!) for its simplicity and intuitiveness.
Xcode includes a WYSIWYG editor for native controls and views. This was formerly a separate program called Interface Builder, but the editor was moved into the Xcode IDE at version 4.
AppKit is the framework it uses in most cases -- that's Objective-C. It's well supported. Your friend can also use it for source code editing and building and debugging apps. If he wants to write UIs programmatically, Xcode and AppKit are also good options.
What is the easiest way to port a win32 MIDI SysEx application (a configuration program), to MacOSX ?
The application itself is written in Qt, but I have no experience in OSX MIDI APIs. Are there good enough drop-in replacements for calls like:
midiInOpen
midiOutOpen
midiOutPrepareHeader
midiOutLongMsg
and a couple more? Is there a decent source of information for someone who has never programmed under MacOSX to develop MIDI SysEx applications? CoreAudio?
I found a great little (just one .cpp file + headers) midi library - crossplatform and all :)
It's also a great source to analyse and to learn from.. a little nugget in the whole undocumented field.
http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~gary/rtmidi/index.html
What is your development platform? If you're writing a Native Coca Application for the mac, Apple wrote a complete framework to deal with the Midi traffic named CoreMidi. The CoreMidi framework deliver the whole package of midi (include SysEx) and even extend it with network support.
I recommend having a look at Pete Goodliffe blog post of using CoreMidi for iOS devices. Although you're not developing for iOS, there is a lot of CoreMidi related information there.
There is a simple, yet brilliant, application that I use a lot on my studio named: Midi Monitor which is an open source application. I recommend having a look there too.
I'm tasked with "porting" a few apps from a Windows environment to various mobile platforms and Mac as well.
I plan on writing MVC patterned apps in which I write as many controllers as I can in some sort of universal library, probably in C or C++. Then writing the views in various choice languages (Objective C, Java, .NET, whatever) for the target OSes.
I've never attempted anything like this before, so my questions are: Is it possible to write and compile one library that can be used on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows and Mac? Is it even wise to try this?
I understand that certain native methods simply won't be available on each platform.
You can create a library whose source code is portable, assuming that you properly abstract away any platform-dependent calls. You can't, however, create such a library, compile it, then use it anywhere; you'll have to compile it for each platform.
Your should take a look at the Mono Project. http://www.mono-project.com
...more specifically at :
MonoTouch: To develop iPhone applications in .NET
MonoDroid (BETA): To develop Android applications in .NET
Mono plugin for MeeGo: To develop MeeGo applications in .NET
And you know that you can develop on Windows Mobile in .NET already.
I've haven't found anything related to BlackBerry yet.
There are services like Rhomobile and Appcelerator which will allow you to do this sort of cross compiling.
I've never used either however.
I've been doing web development for about six years now, and somehow have entirely avoided ever developing a desktop application.
I am considering writing a desktop application (I'm thinking something similar to a Word clone) on Linux but have no idea where to start. I hear of Qt and GTK+, but I'm curious if there are any frameworks that are similar to web development. Language isn't a problem, as long as it isn't Java.
You really want to go with Qt these days. Both Nokia and Intel are now pushing it as the main GUI in their new distro Meego. This means, if you are using Qt, you'll be able to target all their platforms (both desktop, embedded and phone domain), including all the platforms already supported by Qt.
Qt also comes with a GUI Designer and an IDE which will support you in the whole process, and soon there will be QML, which is a declarative UI language, for even more rapid development of apps.
Take a look here:
http://qt.nokia.com/products
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7IgwNrcln8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoo_Ows1ExU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr5FuGhTqm8
GTK+ and QT are GUI frameworks. They use xlib under the hood and encapsulate the nuances of xlib and provide you with an easier interface.
For rapid development you can use GLADE and quickly build GUI applications in C/C++.
Check out wxWidgets, it's another framework that is usually compared with Qt & GTK+
Go for Qt. And, if you are webdev, you will find in QML one of the best instruments EVER.
It has:
A Declarative approach to UI definition and Graphics elements Behavious/Animations
It's cool and simple at the same time
For now is only available in a couple of (old) binary drops, or by clone-compiling qt.gitorious.com/qt, branch ">4.7"
If you don't have to release today, but do you have time to develop and test, then QML should be "stable" by end H1 2010. If I got the schedule right ;-)
Some of the requirements (restrictions) for such a ui framework/toolkit are:
No single vendor lock down
Ability for real time data visualization
Good initial widgets
Good dash boarding capabilities
cross platform
Good development/debug environment
No flash
It's a pity you can't/won't use Flash. Else I could really recommend Adobe AIR. It has a good editor (Flex Builder built on Eclipse), a good component framework with many out of the box components, charting components set, ability to communicate with many different protocols (and you could write your own protocol implementation), cross platform, runs in the AIR runtime and not in the browser, file IO, ...
I wouldn't pass over Flex/Air (Flash) without a closer consideration but here are a few others I have come across:
wxWidgets
GTK+
Qt
There is also a slashdot post with links to some tookits I haven't heard of. I'll add their recommendations here:
GLUI, an OpenGL-based GUI
Whisper, a Mac/Windows application framework
WxWindows, a framework which supports Windows 3.1/95/98/NT, and Unix with GTK/Motif/Lesstif, and MacOS
YAAF, Yet Another Application Framework, offering suport for Macintosh OS, Windows 95 and Windows NT, and X Windows
CPLAT, a framework for developing MacOS and Windows (Linux soon) applications
Ardi's Carbonless Copies technology, which is a portable rewrite of much of the MacOS API
For general information:
GUI Toolkit/Framework Page
PIGUI FAQ Page
C++ User's Journal PIGUI Page
I might suggest Mozilla XUL, but it has some drawbacks:
No really good development / debug environment (although there are tools and debuggers; they are variable)
You are locked into a vendor, but it is Mozilla.
It is very easy to use though and allows you to reuse your web Javascript skills for a rich-client app.
There's also Java of course. It satifies all your requirements AFAICS.
Plenty of custom charting controls, which are things you will struggle to find for GTK/WxWindows/$other_small_userbase_framework.
If you dont like Swing(its come a long way - Metal is dead, long live SystemDefault L&F!), there are options like SWT or even QT bindings for java(QTJambi).
For C or C++ go QT, its APIs are really nice.
For RCAs check out Eclipse RCP. For RIAs, you might be interested in OpenLaszlo. It's a rich internet platform that can compile both to Flash and DHTML.
http://www.gnustep.org/
"GNUstep is a cross-platform, object-oriented framework for desktop application development. Based on the OpenStep specification originally created by NeXT (now Apple), GNUstep enables developers to rapidly build sophisticated software by employing a large library of reusable software components."
Portable to: Windows, BSD-based systems, Linux-based systems, HP/UX, , Solaris, Sparc, GNUstep Solaris 10 U2 vmware appliance, OpenSolaris, others.
I recently made a pretty complete list here: http://commadot.com/ria-frameworks/
ExtJS is probably my favorite and we use that at work. I think it satisfies your list. Otherwise, there are a bunch of other possibilities on that page.