[chuck] status report

[Ge Wang]

Dear All,

chuck-1.2 is on the way.

(but this email will reach you before it does.)

As you may (or may not) be wondering: it is now February, where is
ChucK-1.2?  We have pushed back the release (again), this time to March.
However, this _will_ be the final delay.  We have been busy writing papers
(one of them, ironically, is about implementing ChucK) in the last month
or so, trying to meet submission deadlines (3 of which fell within the
same week).  We are on the last spin cycle of paper writing, and can
return to full-time development on 1.2 in 2 weeks.  You may be
wondering: how can we guarantee a March release?  Answer: we release what
we have at the end of March, even if some things are not yet done.

As for the actual status of the new release:

---
done:
- 90% code/testing the new type system, which supports arrays (both
integer and associative), defining new objects, environments/contexts for
organizing the namespace, new operators (+=>, *=>, ^=>), object
references, many small fixes.
- 50% code/testing the emitter and new virtual machine bytecodes.  Not
too much code needs to be written for supporting arrays/objects - heavy
testing is very much needed.
- various fixes in all parts of the system

todo:
- the other 10/50% of system
- function overloading
- more powerful library import mechansim
- more powerful unit generator import mechanism
- a very basic class library
- stereo/multichannel support
- testing testing
- documentation for new features

in progress:
- Adam Tindale is putting together (gasp) comprehensive documentation
- Ajay Kapur has been investigating using ChucK for real-time controllers
- Phil is researching more graphics-related Audicle/gluck ideas
- Folks at Stacken have been working on auto-conf (now waiting for us to
  hand over new release)
- Gary Williams is working on tutorials in the beginning chuck blog
- Chris Turner is working on matching client/server messages for better
  on-the-fly programming feedback
- Perry, Ananya, and I are writing paper and code for v2
- (any other development effort I missed?)

release dates:
---
v1.2 release: late March
doc overhaul release: April
audicle release: summer
gluck release: summer


In conclusion, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your
(incredible) patience.

Best,
The ChucK team

PS: This remind me of a previous post from almost a year ago, I have
included it below:



---------------------------------------------------------------------
On Sat, 10 Apr 2004, Ge Wang wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dear All,
>
> As you may (or may not) be wondering: it is now April, where is ChucK?
>
> We have pushed back the release (again), this time to May.  However,
> this _will_ be the final delay.  We will attend NIME
> (http://www.nime.org/) in early June to present the follow-up ChucK
> paper (see below) and to perform our piece: "On-the-fly Counterpoint"
> using ChucK (an "amusing" initial performance took place in November
> 2003 in Princeton).  The initial release of ChucK will definitely
> happen before that, in late May 2004.  Our efforts from now until then
> are completely devoted to the implementation/release.
>
> Additional status report:
>
> ----
> NIME 2004 (in Hamamatsu, Japan) - we will present:
>
> "On-the-fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument"
> It can be found on the on-the-fly programming site:
>     http://on-the-fly.cs.princeton.edu/
>
> You can see a short video from the initial performance from here as
> well. Also, if you are further (still) interested in on-the-fly
> programming, Alex mentioned that a group of us are gluing together some
> kind of informal group
> (http://www.toplap.org/).
>
> ----
> In an (perhaps rather insane) attempt to pipeline tasks, we have been
> prototyping a "context-sensitive, on-the-fly programming environment"
> for use with ChucK.  Its purpose to complement and visualize the
> language, enhancing the ability to do on-the-fly programming.  The name
> of this environment: The Audicle.  We recently submitted its paper to
> ICMC.
>
> With this done, the pipeline is now full, and there will be no more
> stalling!  We have been coding/documentating/testing ChucK around the
> clock.  Recent additions: flexible virtual machine options, tons of
> bugs fixes (tons of new bugs), improved audio engine interface and
> performance (thanks to Gary Scavone), much improved error reporting.
> Next: dynamic linking and class semantics.
>
> ----
> In conclusion, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your
> (incredible) patience.
>
> As always, please post/email comments and concerns!
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> Best,
> Ge!
>
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