Formes: An object and time oriented system for music composition and synthesis

ABSTRACT

It is well known [Winograd79] that the development and use of complex systems was stifled by the inadequacy of ordinary programming languages. Music Composition and Synthesis (MCS) by computer offers an appropriate example of this “complexity barrier”. Object-Oriented programming matches a lot of MCS requirements: an object-oriented programming environment, called Formes, has been developed at IRCAM, including original features like precise control of Time and Hierarchy of events. In this paper the structure and implementation of the system Formes are presented. Particular attention is given to a functional approach of message passing and an extension of the class concept to real-time control structure. Two musical examples and a meta-circular definition of Formes are developed.

REFERENCES

• 1: G.M. Birtwhistle , O.J. Dahl , B. Myhrhaug , K. Nygaard, Simula Begin, Chartwell-Bratt Ltd, 1979
• 2: D. Bobrow et M. Stefik, The LOOPS Manual, Preliminary Version 1982.
• 3: Alan Hamilton Borning, Thinglab--a constraint-oriented simulation laboratory., 1979
• 4: J. Chailloux, "VLISP 10.3, Manuel de Référence," RT-16-78, Université Paris 8 - Vincennes (Avril 1978).
• 5: J. Chailloux, Le modèle VLISP: Description, Implémentation et Evaluation% (these de 3ieme cycle), Universites' Paris 6-7, LITP 80-20 (Avril 1980).
• 6: J. Chailloux, Manuel Le-Lisp (2ième édition), INRIA (Février 1984).
• 7: P. Cointe, "Fermetures dans les &lgr;-Interprètes: Application aux Langages LISP, PLASMA et SMALLTALK (these de 3ieme cycle)," LITP 82-11, Universite Paris VI, Paris (Decembre 1981).
• 8: P. Cointe, "A VLISP Implementation of SMALLTALK-76," pp. 89-102 dans Integrated Interactive Computing Systems, ed. P. Degano & E. Sandewall, North-Holland, Amsterdam, New York, Oxford (1983).
• 9: P. Cointe, "Une extension de Vlisp par les Objets," Science of Computer Programming, (161)North Holland, (1984).
• 10: P. Cointe et X. Rodet, "FORMES: un langage-objet gérant des processus hiérarchisés," pp. 291-311 dans Quatrième Congrès Reconnaissance des Formes et Intelligence Artificielle, Vol. 2, INRIA AFCET, Paris (25-27 Janvier 1984).
• 11: R. B. Dannenberg et P. Mc. Avinney, A Functional Approach to Real-Time Control, Carnegie Mellon (May 1983). Draft
• 12: Adele Goldberg , David Robson, Smalltalk-80: the language and its implementation, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1983
• 13: P. Greussay, Contribution à la définition interprétative et à l'implémentation des &lgr;-langages (thèse d'Etat), Universités Paris 6-7, LITP 78-2 (Novembre 1977).
• 14: P. Greussay, "Le Système VLISP-UNIX," Département Informatique, Université Paris 8 - Vincennes (Février 1982). Draft
• 15: C. A. R. Hoare, Monitors: an operating system structuring concept, Communications of the ACM, v.17 n.10, p.549-557, Oct. 1974 [doi>10.1145/355620.361161]
• 16: Ellis Horowitz, Fundamentals of programming languages (2nd ed.), Computer Science Press, Inc., New York, NY, 1984
• 17: J.M. Hullot, "CEYX A Multiformalism Programming Environment," dans IFIP-83, Paris (Septembre 1983).
• 18: Daniel H. H. Ingalls, The Smalltalk-76 programming system design and implementation, Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGACT-SIGPLAN symposium on Principles of programming languages, p.9-16, January 23-25, 1978, Tucson, Arizona [doi>10.1145/512760.512762]
• 19: K.M. Kahn, DIRECTOR GUIDE. 6 December 1979.
• 20: A. Kay et A. Goldberg, "SMALLTALK-72 Instruction Manual," SSL 76-6, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA.(March 1976).
• 21: G. Krasner, "Machine Tongues VIII: The Design of a Smalltalk Music System," Computer Music Journal 4(4) pp. 4-14 (1980).
• 22: H. Lieberman, "Machine tongues IX: Object-Oriented Programming," Computer Music Journal 6(3) p. 8 21(Fall 1982).
• 23: M.V. Mathews, The technology of computer music, MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusets (1969).
• 24: D. A. Moon et D. Weinreb, "Flavors: Message Passing In The Lisp Machine," AI Memo| No 602, MIT(November 1980)
• 25: D. A. Moon, R. Stallman, et D. Weinreb, LISP MACHINE MANUAL (fifth edition), MIT, Cambridge, Mass. (January 83).
• 26: C. Roads, "A report on SPIRE: An interactive Audio Processing Environment," Computer Music Journal 7(2) pp. 70-74 (Summer 1983).
• 27: X. Rodet, P. Cointe, J.B. Barrière, Y. Potard, B. Serpette, et J.P. Briot, Applications and Developments of the FORMES programming environment, ICMC, Rochester (Octobre 1983).
• 28: D.C. Smith, "Pygmalion, A Creative Programming Environment," Memo AIM-260, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Computer Science Department, Standford (June 1975).
• 29: G.L. Steele et G.J. Sussman, "SCHEME: An Interpreter for Extended &lgr; Calculus," Memo 349, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (December 1975).
• 30: L. Steels, "ORBIT: An Applicative View of Object Oriented Programming," pp. Pages 193-206 dans Integrated Interactive Computing Systems, ed. P. Degano & E. Sandewall, North-Holland. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford (1983).
• 31: H. Wertz, Etude, Réalisation et Evaluation d'un Environment de Programmation utilisant des Représentations Multiples pour le Devéloppement Continue de Logiciels trés Evolués (thèse d'Etat), LITP 84-16 (Avril 1984).
• 32: Terry Winograd, Beyond programming languages, Communications of the ACM, v.22 n.7, p.391-401, July 1979 [doi>10.1145/359131.359133]
• 33: Michael J. Wise, A parallel Prolog: The construction of a data driven model, Proceedings of the 1982 ACM symposium on LISP and functional programming, p.56-66, August 15-18, 1982, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States [doi>10.1145/800068.802135]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.5 Sound and Music Computing

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.5 Object-oriented Programming

General Terms:
Languages