The BEAST Manual

The Beast Project <beast.testbit.org>

1 The BEAST Manual

This is the Beast manual, Beast is a music synthesis and composition program.

The manual is structured into sections covering tutorial material, Howto descriptions, Man pages, file formats and conventions, background discussions concerning development considerations and an API reference.

It is written in Markdown and contributions are welcome, e.g. as pull requests or via the Beast issue tracker.

2 Tutorials

2.1 First Song Editing

Start Beast, it will open up with an empty project by default.

Select ProjectNew Song, in order to add notes, tracks and instruments for some music composition.

Select the Add Track icon button, so the song has at least one track which corresponds to a playable instrument.

Select the tracks Synth field and select an instrument to be played back for this track.

Create a new part within the track by clicking into the tracks timeline. A part contains the notes that the instrument will play when playback is actiavted for this song.

3 How-to Articles

This space is for Howto articels about how to do things.

3.1 Using a MIDI device

  1. From the command line, list the known PCM / MIDI devices: beast --bse-driver-list

  2. Start Beast with a selected MIDI device, e.g.: beast -m alsa=hw:0,0

  3. Select and play DemoMIDI Test to test notes from devices like MIDI keyboards.

4 Manual Pages

4.1 BEAST(1)

NAME

beast - Music composition and modular synthesis application

SYNOPSIS

beast [OPTIONS] [FILES...]

DESCRIPTION

Beast is the BEtter Audio SysTem. It is a music composition and modular synthesis application released as free software under the GNU LGPL.

Beast comes with various synthesis modules which can be arranged in networks for modular synthesis. It is capable of monophonic and polyphonic voice processing, provides MIDI sequencer functionality and supports external sequencer sources. A huge set of extra modules is available through the support for LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API) plugins.

OPTIONS

Beast follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes ('-').

General options

--skinrc FILENAME
Read skin resources from FILENAME.
--print-dir RESOURCE
Print the directory for a specific resource (e.g. 'plugins' or 'images'). Giving just --print-dir without an extra argument causes Beast to print the list of available resources.
--merge
Cause the following files to be merged into the previous or first project.
--devel
Enrich the GUI with hints useful for (script) developers
-h, --help
Show a brief help message.
-v, --version
Print out Beast with component versions and file paths.
-n NICELEVEL
Execute with priority NICELEVEL, this option only takes effect for the root suid wrapper 'beast'.
-N
Disable renicing to execute with existing priority.
--display DISPLAY
X server display for the GUI; see X(7).
--bse-latency USECONDS
Set the allowed synthesis latency for Bse in milliseconds.
--bse-mixing-freq FREQUENCY
Set the desired synthesis mixing frequency in Hz.
--bse-control-freq FREQUENCY
Set the desired control frequency in Hz, this should be much smaller than the synthesis mixing frequency to reduce CPU load. The default value of approximately 1000 Hz is usually a good choice.

--bse-pcm-driver DRIVER-CONF

-p DRIVER-CONF
This options results in an attempt to open the PCM driver DRIVER-CONF when playback is started. Multiple options may be supplied to try a variety of drivers and unless DRIVER-CONF is specified as 'auto', only the drivers listed by options are used. Each DRIVER-CONF consists of a driver name and an optional comma seperated list of arguments attached to the driver with an equal sign, e.g.: -p oss=/dev/dsp2,rw -p auto

--bse-midi-driver DRIVER-CONF

-m DRIVER-CONF
This option is similar to the --bse-pcm-driver option, but applies to MIDI drivers and devices. It also may be specified multiple times and features an 'auto' driver.
--bse-driver-list
Produce a list of all available PCM and MIDI drivers and available devices.
--
Stop argument processing, interpret all remaining arguments as file names.

Development Options

--debug KEYS
Enable certain verbosity stages.
--debug-list
List possible debug keys.
-:[FLAGS]
This option enables or disables various debugging specific flags for Beast core developers. Use of -: is not recommended, because the supported flags may change between versions and cause possibly harmful misbehaviour.

Gtk+ Options

--gtk-debug FLAGS
Gtk+ debugging flags to enable.
--gtk-no-debug FLAGS
Gtk+ debugging flags to disable.
--gtk-module MODULE
Load additional Gtk+ modules.
--gdk-debug FLAGS
Gdk debugging flags to enable.
--gdk-no-debug FLAGS
Gdk debugging flags to disable.
--g-fatal-warnings
Make warnings fatal (abort).
--sync
Do all X calls synchronously.

SEE ALSO

bse(5), sfidl(1), Beast/Bse Website

4.2 BSEWAVETOOL(1)

NAME

bsewavetool - A tool for editing the native multisample format of Beast and Bse

SYNOPSIS

bsewavetool [tool-options] command <file.bsewave> [command-arguments]

DESCRIPTION

Bsewavetool is a command line tool for editing the native multisample format for Beast and Bse, the Bsewave format. Some common operations are creating new Bsewave files, adding chunks to an existing file, encoding the sample data, adding meta information or exporting chunks.

Common uses for Bsewave files are:

OPTIONS

A number of options can be used with bsewavetool in combination with the commands:

-o <output.bsewave>
Name of the destination file (default: <file.bsewave>).
--silent
Suppress extra processing information.
--skip-errors
Skip errors (may overwrite Bsewave files after load errors occoured for part of its contents).
-h, --help
Show elaborated help message with command documentation.
-v, --version
Print version information.

COMMANDS

Store

store

Store the input Bsewave as output Bsewave. If both file names are the same, the Bsewave file is simply rewritten. Allthough no explicit modifications are performed on the Bsewave, externally referenced sample files will be inlined, chunks may be reordered, and other changes related to the Bsewave storage process may occour.

Create

create <n_channels> [options]

Create an empty Bsewave file, <n_channels>=1 (mono) and <n_channels>=2 (stereo) are currently supported.

Options:

-N <wave-name>
Name of the wave stored inside of <output.bsewave>.
-f
Force creation even if the file exists already.

Oggenc

oggenc [options]

Compress all chunks with the Vorbis audio codec and store the wave data as Ogg/Vorbis streams inside the Bsewave file.

Options:

-q <n>
Use quality level <n>, refer to oggenc(1) for details.

Add Chunk

add-chunk [options] {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq} <sample-file> ...

Add a new chunk containing <sample-file> to the wave file. For each chunk, a unique oscillator frequency must be given to determine what note the chunk is to be played back for. Multi oscillator frequency + sample-file option combinations may be given on the command line to add multiple wave chunks. The -f and -m options can be omitted for a sample file, if the oscillator frequency can be determined through auto extract options.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency for the next chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--auto-extract-midi-note <nth>
Automatically retrieve the midi note by extracting the <nth> number from the base name of <sample-file>.
--auto-extract-osc-freq <nth>
Automatically retrieve the oscillator frequency by extracting the <nth> number from the base name of <sample-file>.

Add Raw Chunk

add-raw-chunk [options] {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq} <sample-file> ...

Add a new chunk just like with 'add-chunk', but load raw sample data. Additional raw sample format options are supported.

Options:

-R <mix-freq>
Mixing frequency for the next chunk [44100].
-F <format>
Raw sample format, supported formats are: alaw, ulaw, float, signed-8, signed-12, signed-16, unsigned-8, unsigned-12, unsigned-16 [signed-16].
-B <byte-order>
Raw sample byte order, supported types: little-endian, big-endian [little-endian].

Del Chunk

del-chunk {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks}

Removes one or more chunks from the Bsewave file.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--all-chunks
Delete all chunks.

XInfo

xinfo {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks|--wave} key=[value] ...

Add, change or remove an XInfo string of a Bsewave file. Omission of [value] deletes the XInfo associated with the key. Key and value pairs may be specified multiple times, optionally preceeded by location options to control what portion of a Bsewave file (the wave, individual wave chunks or all wave chunks) should be affected.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--all-chunks
Apply XInfo modification to all chunks.
--wave
Apply XInfo modifications to the wave itself.

Info

info {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks|--wave} [options]

Print information about the chunks of a Bsewave file.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--all-chunks
Show information for all chunks (default).
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--wave
Show information for the wave.
--pretty=medium
Use human readable format (default).
--pretty=full
Use human readable format with all details.
--script <field1>,<field2>,<field3>,...,<fieldN>
Use script readable line based space separated output.

Valid wave or chunk fields:

channels
Number of channels.
label
User interface label.
blurb
Associated comment.

Valid wave fields:

authors
Authors who participated in creating the wave file.
license
License specifying redistribution and other legal terms.
play-type
Set of required play back facilities for a wave.

Valid chunk fields:

osc-freq
Frequency of the chunk.
mix-freq
Sampling rate of the chunk.
midi-note
Midi note of a chunk.
length
Length of the chunk in sample frames.
volume
Volume at which the chunk is to be played.
format
Storage format used to save the chunk data.
loop-type
Whether the chunk is to be looped.
loop-start
Offset in sample frames for the start of the loop.
loop-end
Offset in sample frames for the end of the loop.
loop-count
Maximum limit for how often the loop should be repeated.

Chunk fields that can be computed for the signal:

+avg-energy-raw
Average signal energy (dB) of the raw data of the chunk.
+avg-energy
Average signal energy (dB) using volume xinfo.

The script output consists of one line per chunk. The individual fields of a line are separated by a single space. Special characters are escaped, such as spaces, tabs, newlines and backslashes. So each line of script parsable output can be parsed using the read(P) shell command. Optional fields will printed as a single (escaped) space.

The human readable output formats (--pretty) may vary in future versions and are not recommended as script input.

Clip

clip {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks} [options]

Clip head and or tail of a wave chunk and produce fade-in ramps at the beginning. Wave chunks which are clipped to an essential 0-length will automatically be deleted.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--all-chunks
Try to clip all chunks.
-s=<threshold>
Set the minimum signal threshold (0..32767) [16].
-h=<head-samples>
Number of silence samples to verify at head [0].
-t=<tail-samples>
Number of silence samples to verify at tail [0].
-f=<fade-samples>
Number of samples to fade-in before signal starts [16].
-p=<pad-samples>
Number of padding samples after signal ends [16].
-r=<tail-silence>
Number of silence samples required at tail to allow tail clipping [0].

Normalize

normalize {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks} [options]

Normalize wave chunk. This is used to extend (or compress) the signal range to optimally fit the available unclipped dynamic range.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--all-chunks
Try to normalize all chunks.

Loop

loop {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--all-chunks} [options]

Find suitable loop points.

Options:

-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks
--all-chunks
Try to loop all chunks

Highpass

highpass [options]

Apply highpass filter to wave data.

Options:

--cutoff-freq <f>
Filter cutoff frequency in Hz
--order <o>
Filter order [64]

Lowpass

lowpass [options]

Apply lowpass filter to wave data.

Options:

--cutoff-freq <f>
Filter cutoff frequency in Hz
--order <o>
Filter order [64]

Upsample2

upsample2 [options]

Resample wave data to twice the sampling frequency.

Options:

--precision <bits>
Set resampler precision bits [24]. Supported precisions: 1, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 (1 is a special value for linear interpolation)

Downsample2

downsample2 [options]

Resample wave data to half the sampling frequency.

Options:

--precision <bits>
Set resampler precision bits [24]. Supported precisions: 1, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 (1 is a special value for linear interpolation).

Export

export {-m=midi-note|-f=osc-freq|--chunk-key=key|--all-chunks|-x=filename} [options]

Export chunks from Bsewave as WAV file.

Options:

-x <filename>
Set export filename (supports %N %F and %C, see below).
-f <osc-freq>
Oscillator frequency to select a wave chunk.
-m <midi-note>
Alternative way to specify oscillator frequency.
--chunk-key <key>
Select wave chunk using chunk key from list-chunks.
--all-chunks
Try to export all chunks.

The export filename can contain the following extra information:

%F
The frequency of the chunk.
%N
The midi note of the chunk.
%C
Cent detuning of the midi note.

List Chunks

list-chunks [options]

Prints a list of chunk keys of the chunks contained in the Bsewave file. A chunk key for a given chunk identifies the chunk uniquely and stays valid if other chunks are inserted and deleted.

This bash script shows the length of all chunks (like info --all-chunks):

 for key in `bsewavetool list-chunks foo.bsewave` ; do
   bsewavetool info foo.bsewave --chunk-key $key --script length ;
 done

SEE ALSO

beast(1), Beast/Bse Website, Samples and Wave Files in Beast

4.3 BSE(5)

NAME

BSE - Better Sound Engine File Format

SYNOPSIS

filename.bse

DESCRIPTION

The Bse file format is used by the Bse library and dependent programs to save projects, songs, instruments and sample collections.

FORMAT

Bse files start out with a special magic string "; BseProject\n" and then contain nested expressions in scheme syntax using the ASCII charset. Binary data may be appended to a *.bse file if it is separated from the preceeding ASCII text by one or more literal NUL characters ('\0'). This mechanism is used to store arbitrary binary data like WAV or Ogg/Vorbis files in Bse projects, while keeping the actual content user editable - text editors that preserve binary sections have to be used, such as vi(1) or emacs(1).

COMPATIBILITY

The exact format and sets of objects and properties used in a Bse file depend highly on the library version that was used to save the file. Compatibility functions are supplied by the library itself, so old Bse files can be converted when the file is loaded. To enable this mechanism, all Bse files contain a "bse-version" directive which indicates the Bse file format version of the supplied content.

SEE ALSO

beast(1), bsewavetool(1), BSE Reference

4.4 SFIDL(1)

NAME

sfidl - SFI IDL Compiler (Beast internal)

SYNOPSIS

sfidl [OPTIONS] input.idl

DESCRIPTION

Sfidl generates glue code for Bse objects and plugins from interface definition language files.

OPTIONS

--help [BINDING]
Print general usage information. Or, if BINDING was specified, print usage information for this language binding.
--version
Print program version.
-I DIRECTORY
Add DIRECTORY to include path.
--print-include-path
Print include path.
--nostdinc
Prevents standard include path from being used.

Language bindings:

--client-c
Generate C client language binding.
--client-c
Generate C core language binding.
--host-c
Generate C host language binding.
--client-cxx
Generate C++ client language binding.
--core-cxx
Generate C++ core language binding.
--plugin
Generate C++ plugin language binding.
--list-types
Print all types defined in the idlfile. This option is used only for BSE internally to ease transition from C to C++ types.

Language binding options:

--header
Generate header file, this is the default.
--source
Generate source file.
--prefix prefix
C host/client language binding option, sets the prefix for C functions. The prefix ensures that no symbol clashes will occur between different programs/libraries which are using a binding, so it is important to set it to something unique to your application/library.
--init name
Set the name of the init function for C host/core bindings.
--namespace namespace
C++ client language binding, sets the namespace to use for the code. The namespace ensures that no symbol clashes will occur between different programs/libraries which are using a binding, so it is important to set it to something unique to your application/library.
--lower
Select lower case identifiers in the C++ client language binding (create_midi_synth), this is the default.
--mixed
Select mixed case identifiers in the C++ client language binding (createMidiSynth).

SEE ALSO

BSE Reference, Sfidl Manual

5 File Formats and Conventions

5.1 The overall structure of BSE files

A *.bse file is an Ascii file with occasional binary appendix and contains various data proccessed by the BSE library. The readable (Ascii) part of a .bse file is held in lisp syntax and mostly build up out of (keyword value) pairs.

5.1.1 Identification Tag

[NOTE: currently (1999-12-21) the identification tag support is disabled, and subject for general overhaul. A new implementation is likely to come soon and will probably (roughly) follow this specification.]

Each file has a special identification tag in the first line:

(BSE-Data V1 0000000004);               -*- scheme -*-
 ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^^^^^^
 |        |  |
 |        |  ten-digit octal flag
 |        |
 |        version tag
 |
 BSE data-identifier

and is matched against a regexp pattern (in grep -E syntax):

^\(BSE-Data\ V1\ [0-7]{10}\);.*$

Note that the ';' at the end of the right parenthesis is actually part of the expression and needs to directly follow the right parenthesis, whereas the space inbetween the ';' and the line end '\n' can contain any number of, or even no characters at all. The ten-digit octal value is a short hand flag to identify the various kinds of data held in the current file. Its value corresponds to the enum definiton BseIoDataFlags in <bse/bseenums.h>.

5.1.2 Important keywords

Main statement keywords - prefixed by a left parenthesis, to start a certain statement - are:

BseSNet
A source network specification, containing all the sources (filters) contained in the network, their properties and associated link structures.
BseSong
Holding a song definition including all of a song's data, e.g. instrument definitions, patterns, effects, etc.
BseSample
A sample definition, usually including references to certain binary blocks that have their binary data appended to the file.

Substatement keywords depend on the object (main statement) they apply to, and should be mostly self explanatory ;)

5.1.3 Binary Appendices

One object invariant substatement keyword is "BseBinStorageV0", it's syntax is as follows:

( BseBinStorageV0 <UOFFSET> <ENDIANESS>:<N_BITS> <ULENGTH> )
<UOFFSET>
offset within the binary appendix for this block's data
<ENDIANESS>
either 'L' or 'B' for respectively little or big endianess
<N_BITS>
number of bits per (endianess-conformant) value stored in this block
<ULENGTH>
number of bytes contained in this block

Binary appendices are stored after the ascii part of a .bse file. A NUL ('\0') byte character unambiguously marks the end of the ascii portion. Directly following this NUL byte the binary appendix starts out, containing binary data as specified through the various BseBinStorageV0 statements within the ascii portion. Files without binary appendix may not contain the terminating NUL byte.

6 Background & Discussions

Space for notes about the synthesis engine, undo/redo stacks and other technical bits.

6.1 Threading Overview

On a high level, Beast constitutes the front-end to the libbse sound engine.

The BSE sound engine spawns a separate (main) thread separate from the UI for all sound related management and a number of digital signal processing (DSP) sub threads to facilitate parallelized synthesis.

Invocations of the libbse API are automatically relayed to the BSE thread via an IPC mechanism.

The main BSE thread is where the API facing BSE objects live. For actual sound synthesis, these objects spawn synthesis engine modules that process audio buffers from within the DSP threads. The number of parallel DSP threads usually corresponds to the number of cores available to libbse.

Additionally, libbse spawns a separate sequencer thread that generates note-on, note-off and related commands from the notes, parts and tracks contained in a project. The synchronization required by the sequencer thread with the main thread and the DSP threads is fairly complicated, which is why this is planned to be merged into the DSP threads at some point.

6.2 AIDA - Abstract Interface Definition Adapter

Aida is used to communicate with a regular API between threads and to cross programming language barriers. At the heart of Aida is the IDL file which defines Enums, Records, Sequences and interfaces. Interface methods can be called from one thread and executed on class instances living in other threads. Additionally, callback execution can be scheduled across thread boundaries by attaching them to Event emissions of an instance living in another thread.

Within Beast, Aida is used to bridge between the UI logic (the "Beast-GUI" or "EBeast-module" threads) and the sound synthesis control logic (the "BseMain" thread).

For an IDL interface Foo, Aida generates a "client-side" C++ class FooHandle and a "server-side" C++ class FooIface. The Iface classes contain pure virtual method definitions that need to be implemented by the server-side logic. The Handle classes contain corresponding method wrappers that call the Iface methods across thread boundaries. The Handle methods are implemented non-virtual to reduce the risk of ABI breakage for use cases where only the client-side API is exposed.

6.2.1 IDL - The interface definition files

Namespace

At the outermost scope, an IDL file contains a namespace definition. Interfaces, enums, records and sequences all need to be defined with namespaces in IDL files.

Primitive Types

The primitive types supported in IDL files are enums, bool, integer, float and string types. The supported compound types are sequences - a typed variable length array, records - a set of named and typed variables with meta data, Any - a variant type, and inheritable interfaces.

Enum

Enum values are defined with integer values and allow VALUE = Enum (N, strings...) syntax to add meta data to enum values.

Interface

An interface can contain methods and property definitions and inherit from other interfaces. Properties defined on an interface are largely sugar for generating two idiomatic getter and setter access methods, but the set of properties and associated meta data of an interface can be accessed programmatically through the __access__() method. The Bse::Object implementation makes use of this facility to implement the dynamic property API set_prop(), get_prop(), find_prop(), list_props(). The syntax for property definitions with meta data is TYPE property_name = Auxillary (strings...);, the Auxillary() constructor can take various forms, but ultimately just constructs a list of UTF-8 key=value strings that can be retrieved at runtime.

Any

An Any is a variant type that can contain any of the other primitive types. It is most useful to represent dynamically typed values in C++ which are common in languages like Python or Javascript. If an Any is set to store an IDL Enum value, it also records the Enum type name, to allow later re-identification. In general, Any should only be needed for languages that do not have dynamic variable types (like C++), and should not normally need to be exposed in dynamic languages (like Python, Javascript). E.g. converting an enum property value stored in an Any to a native type in a dynamic language, a pair could be returned, like (1, "Bse::FooEnum").

7 Vue Component Reference

The Vue components used in EBEAST are usually composed of a single file that provides:

  1. Brief documentation;
  2. Html layout;
  3. CSS style information;
  4. Assorted JS logic.

The Vue component object is defined as part of (d). We often use <canvas> elements for EBEAST specific displays, and Vue canvas handling comes with certain caveats:

  1. Use of the Util.vue_mixins.dom_updates mixin (now default) allows to trigger the dom_update() component method for $forceUpdate() invocations and related events.

  2. A methods: { dom_update() {}, } component entry should be provided that triggers the actual canvas rendering logic.

  3. Using a document.fonts.ready promise, EBEAST re-renders all Vue components via $forceUpdate() once all webfonts have been loaded, <canvas> elements containing text usually need to re-render themselves in this case.

7.0.1 B-ABOUTDIALOG

A b-modaldialog that displays version information about Beast.

Events:

close
A close event is emitted once the "Close" button activated.

7.0.2 B-BUTTON-BAR

A Vue container for tight packing of buttons.

Slots:

slot
All contents passed into this element will be packed tightly and styled as buttons.

7.0.3 B-BUTTON

A button element that responds to clicks.

Props:

hotkey
Keyboard accelerator to trigger a click event.

Events:

click
A click event is emitted for activation through mouse buttons, Space or Enter keys.

Slots:

default
All contents passed into this element will be rendered as contents of the button.

7.0.4 B-COLOR-PICKER

Vue template to display a color picker popup.

Props:

initial-color
The initial color to display.

data:

color
The currently selected color.

7.0.5 B-CONTEXTMENU

A modal popup that displays contextmenu choices, see B-MENUITEM, B-MENUSEPARATOR. Using the popup() method, the menu can be popped up from the parent component, and setting up an onclick handler can be used to handle menuitem actions. Example:

<div @contextmenu.prevent="$refs.cmenu.popup">
  <b-contextmenu ref="cmenu" @click="menuactivation">...</b-contextmenu>
</div>

Props:

Events:

click (role)
Event signaling activation of a submenu item, the role of the submenu is provided as argument.

Methods:

popup (event, origin)
Popup the contextmenu, the event coordinates are used for positioning, the origin is a
reference DOM element to use for drop-down positioning.
close()
Hide the contextmenu.

7.0.6 B-DEVICEEDITOR

Editor for editing of modules.

Props:

device
Container for the modules.

7.0.7 B-DEVICEPANEL

Panel for editing of devices.

Props:

track
Container for the devices.

7.0.8 B-EXAMPLE

A collection of Vue documentation pointers and notes on idiomatic use.

Attr:

Attributes set on a component are by default transferred to its root element, see: inheritAttrs: false. The component can access the attributes through this.$attrs, this can e.g. be used for initial prop values.

Props:

Parents can set values on child component via the props array, the child itself must not change its props, see: Passing Data to Child Components with Props

Property:

Child components can contain computed properties that are get/set-able from the parent via the computed arraay, see: Computed Properties and Watchers

Slots:

Child components can embed parent DOM contents via the v-slot mechanism, see: Content Distribution with Slots

7.0.9 B-FED-NUMBER

A field-editor for integer or floating point number ranges. The input value will be constrained to take on an amount between min and max inclusively.

Properties:

value
Contains the number being edited.
min
The minimum amount that value can take on.
max
The maximum amount that value can take on.
step
A useful amount for stepwise increments.
allowfloat
Unless this setting is true, numbers are constrained to integer values.
readonly
Make this component non editable for the user.

Events:

input
This event is emitted whenever the value changes through user input or needs to be constrained.

7.0.10 B-FED-OBJECT

A field-editor for object input. A copy of the input value is edited, update notifications are provided via an input event.

Properties:

value
Object with properties to be edited.
default
Object with default property values.
readonly
Make this component non editable for the user.
debounce
Delay in milliseconds for input event notifications.

Events:

input
This event is emitted whenever the value changes through user input or needs to be constrained.

7.0.11 B-FED-PICKLIST

A field-editor for picklist input.

Properties:

value
Contains the picklist string being edited.
readonly
Make this component non editable for the user.

Events:

input
This event is emitted whenever the value changes through user input or needs to be constrained.

7.0.12 B-FED-SWITCH

A field-editor switch to change between on and off.

Properties:

value
Contains a boolean indicating whether the switch is on or off.
readonly
Make this component non editable for the user.

Events:

input
This event is emitted whenever the value changes through user input or needs to be constrained.

7.0.13 B-FED-TEXT

A field-editor for text input.

Properties:

value
Contains the text string being edited.
readonly
Make this component non editable for the user.

Events:

input
This event is emitted whenever the value changes through user input or needs to be constrained.

7.0.14 B-HFLEX

A flex container for horizontal layouting (or vertical in the case of B-VFLEX).

Props:

inline
Use 'display: inline-flex' as layout mode, e.g. to integrate this container into text flow.
reverse
Reverse the layout direction, i.e. layout from bottom → top, or right → left.
start
Children are packed towards the start of the flex direction:
end
Children are packed towards the end of the flex direction:
center
Children are packed towards the center of the flex direction:
space-between
Additional space is distributed between the children.
space-around
Additional space is evenly distributed between the children and half a spacing around the edges.
space-evenly
Children will have additional space evenly distributed around them and the edges.
grow0 grow1 grow2 grow3 grow4 grow5 grow6 grow7 grow8 grow9
Grow space for this element if additional space is available with the given strength (0 = none).
shrink0 shrink1 shrink2 shrink3 shrink4 shrink5 shrink6 shrink7 shrink8 shrink9
Shrink space for this element if space is too tight with the given strength (0 = none).
wrap
Layout of the flexbox children may wrap if the elements use more than 100%.
wrap-reverse
Layout of the flexbox children may wrap if the elements use more than 100%, in reverse order.
## Slots:
The default slot holds the contextmenu content.

7.0.15 B-VFLEX

A vertical variant of the B-HFLEX container for vertical layouting.

7.0.16 B-GRID

A grid container for grid layouting (visual cheatsheet.

Props:

inline
Use 'display: inline-grid' as layout mode, e.g. to integrate this container into text flow.
## Slots:
The default slot holds the contextmenu content.

7.0.17 B-HSCROLLBAR

Vue template to display a horizontal scrollbar.

Props:

value
The current scrollbar value.

7.0.18 B-ICON

This element displays icons from various icon fonts. Note, to style the color of icon font symbols, simply apply the color CSS property to this element (styling fill as for SVG elements is not needed).

Props:

iconclass
A CSS class to apply to this icon.
fa
The name of a "Fork Awesome" icon (compatible with "Font Awesome 4"), see the Fork Awesome Icons.
mi
The name of a "Material Icons" icon, see the Material Design Icons.
uc
A unicode character literal, see the Unicode symbols block list.
ic
A prefixed variant of fa, mi, uc.
nosize
Prevent the element from applying default size constraints.
fw
Apply fixed-width sizing.
lg
Make the icon 33% larger than its container.

7.0.19 B-MENUITEM

A menuitem element to be used as a descendant of a B-CONTEXTMENU. The menuitem can be activated via keyboard focus or mouse click and will notify its B-CONTEXTMENU about the click and its role, unless the @click.prevent modifier is used. If no role is specified, the B-CONTEXTMENU will still be notified to be closed, unless $event.preventDefault() is called.

Props:

role
Descriptor for this menuitem that is passed on to its B-CONTEXTMENU onclick.
disabled
Boolean flag indicating disabled state.
fa, mi, uc
Shorthands icon properties that are forwarded to a B-ICON used inside the menuitem.

Events:

click
Event emitted on keyboard/mouse activation, use preventDefault() to avoid closing the menu on clicks.

Slots:

default
All contents passed into this slot will be rendered as contents of this element.

7.0.20 B-MENUROW

Menuitems are packed horizontally inside a menurow.

Props:

noturn
Avoid turning the icon-label direction in menu items to be upside down.

Slots:

default
All contents passed into this slot will be rendered as contents of this element.

7.0.21 B-MENUSEPARATOR

A menu element that serves as a visual separator between other elements.

7.0.22 B-MENUTITLE

An element to be used as menu title.

Slots:

default
All contents passed into this slot will be rendered as contents of this element.

7.0.23 B-MODALDIALOG

A dialog component that disables and dims everything else for exclusive dialog use. Using b-modaldialog with v-if enables a modal dialog that dims all other elements while it is visible and constrains the focus chain. A close event is emitted on clicks outside of the dialog area, if Escape is pressed or the default Close button is actiavted.

Props:

value
A boolean value to control the visibility of the dialog, suitable for v-model bindings.

Events:

input
An input event with value false is emitted when the "Close" button activated.

Slots:

header
The header slot can be used to hold the modal dialog title.
default
The default slot holds the main content.
footer
By default, the footer slot holds a Close button which emits the close event.

CSS Classes:

b-modaldialog
The b-modaldialog CSS class contains styling for the actual dialog contents.

7.0.24 B-PART-LIST

A Vue template to display a list of Bse.Part instances.

Props:

project
The BSE project containing playback tracks.
track
The BseTrack containing the parts to display.

7.0.25 B-PART-THUMB

A Vue template to display a thumbnail for a Bse.Part.

Props:

part
The Bse.Part to display.
tick
The Bse.Track tick position.

7.0.26 B-PIANO-ROLL

A Vue template to display a Bse.part as a piano roll.

Props:

part
The Bse.Part to display.

Data:

hscrollbar
The horizontal scrollbar component, used to provide the virtual scrolling position for the notes canvas.
part
Retrieve the Bse.Part set via the part property.

7.0.27 B-PLAYCONTROLS

A container holding the play and seek controls for a Bse.song.

Props:

project
Injected Bse.Project, using b-projectshell.project.

b-positionview - Display of the song positoin pointer and related information

Props:

7.0.28 B-PREFERENCESDIALOG

A b-modaldialog to edit Beast preferences.

Events:

close
A close event is emitted once the "Close" button activated.

7.0.29 B-PROJECTSHELL

Shell for editing and display of a Bse.Project.

Props:

project
Implicit Bse.Project, using App.bse_project().

7.0.30 B-TRACK-LIST

A container for vertical display of Bse.Track instances.

Props:

song
The Bse.Song containing playback tracks.

7.0.31 B-TRACK-VIEW

A Vue template to display a song's Bse.Track.

Props:

project
The Bse.project containing playback tracks.
track
The Bse.Track to display.

7.0.32 B-TREESELECTOR-ITEM

An element representing an entry of a B-TREESELECTOR, which allows selections.

7.0.33 B-TREESELECTOR

A b-modaldialog that displays a tree and allows selections.

Events:

close
A close event is emitted once the "Close" button activated.

8 BSE API Reference

8.1 Namespace Bse

Members declared within the Bse namespace.

8.1.1 Bse::init_async()

// namespace Bse
void
init_async (int *argc,
            char **argv,
            const char *app_name,
            const StringVector &args);

Initialize and start BSE. Initialize the BSE library and start the main BSE thread. Arguments specific to BSE are removed from argc / argv.

9 Historic Artefacts

Historic notes and writeups that are likely outdated or obsolete.

9.1 Ancient type system description

Description of the BSE types and its type system around 1999, before the migration to GObject.

9.1.1 BSE Structures

9.1.1.1 BseChunk

A BseChunk contains header informations for sample value blocks passed around during sound processing, and a pointer to the associated sample data itself. The pure sample data blocks are referred to as "Hunk"s. A hunk's size is determined by the size of each sample value: sizeof (BseSampleValue), the number of tracks contained in a hunk (for instance a stereo hunk contains 2 tracks) and a global variable that designates the block (hunk's) size for the current sound processing run: BSE_TRACK_LENGTH (bse_globals->track_length). The sample values themselves are layed out interleaved within the hunk, e.g. a 2 track stereo hunk with a hunk_length of 16 would contain:

L - left track (1) value
R - right track (2) value
LRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLRLR

Each chunk is associated with a certain output channel of a specific source, and applies to a distinct time frame. The actuall time frame length is determined through BSE_TRACK_LENGTH and the current mixing frequency BSE_MIX_FREQ.

9.1.1.2 BseParam

A parameter that can be get/set on an object. Each parameter has a parameter specification associated with it.

9.1.1.3 BseParamSpec*

A parameter specification similar to an object's class or to procedure classes, but for a given parameter type multiple parameter specifications may exist (e.g. to implement integer parameters with different ranges). Thus the type system actually implements parameters as "unclassed" types.

9.1.1.4 BseObject

BseObject implements basic structure operations and provides the necessary cruft for objects to have classes.

9.1.1.5 BseObjectClass

A class associated with each objects instance. A class is referenced by its object instances. introduces per-object parameters.

9.1.1.6 BseProcedure

A BseProcedure is a a special classed-only (i.e. not-object) type that holds parameter specifications in it's calss structure and can be called. Work is in progress to map certain procedures to certain object types, so they can be thought of as special object-methods to do perform certain object specific modifications.

9.1.1.7 BsePlugin

A plugin handle that holds information about existing plugins, such as where the actuall plugin's implementation is stored on disk and what types of objects are implemented by the plugin.

Plugin can provide:

9.1.1.8 BseType

type ids are provided for objects & classes, object interfaces, parameters, procedures, enum & flags definitions.

9.1.2 The BSE type system

BSE features a single inheritance object hierarchy with multiple interfaces. It therefore contains a type system that registers several object and non-object types. The type system features unclassed types (parameters), classed types (enumerations and procedures) and object types (also classed). The type system implemented by BSE has several analogies to the Gtk+ type system and several type system related code portions have been traded between the two projects. However, the BSE type system got furtherly enhanced (read: complicated ;) in some regards by featuring dynamic types to allow certain implementations to reside in dynamic plugins.

Usually, all types get registered with their name, description and inheritance information upon startup and for static types the implementation related type information is also stored right away. This information cannot be stored right away for dynamic types since the implementation related type information contains function pointers that will not remaind valid across the life time of plugins (a plugin being loaded, unloaded and the reloaded again will most certainly end up in a different memory location than before). When class or object instances of a dynamic type need to be created, the corresponding plugin will be loaded into memory and the required implementation related type information will be retrieved.

Upon destruction of the instance, the type info is released again and the plugin will be unloaded. So for dynamic types, the only things that stays persistent across plugin life times are the type's name, description, inheritance information and type id, as well as additional information about what plugin this type is implemented by.

Parameter types are unclassed and do not feature inheritance, they are merely variable type ids to distinguish between e.g. strings and integers. Enumeration types are classed, with flags being a certain kind of enumerations in that their values only feature certain bits. For enumertaions, a flat hierarchy is supported, where every enumeration or flags type derives from BSE_TYPE_ENUM or BSE_TYPE_FLAGS respectively.

Object types are classed as well, and may exist in multiple instances per type id. They feature single inheritance and multiple interfaces, where an interface type denotes a certain alternate class-based vtable that is required to adress similar object methods from different heirarchy branches with the same API. Type inheritance can be examined by testing their is_a relationships, e.g. for a type parent and a type child deriving from parent, the following holds true: child is_a parent, while the reverse: parent is_a child would fail, because child inherits all of parent's facilities, but not the other way around.

Whether a certain object type implements a specific interface, can be tested through the conforms_to relationship, e.g. for an interface I requirering a method implementation foo and a base type B, not implementing foo with it's two child types C and D, both carrying different imlpementations of foo, the following applies:

We will now outline the several steps that are taken by the type system to create/destroy classes and objects. This is actually the guide line for the type system's implementation, so feel free to skip this over ;) In the below, unreferencing of certain objects may automatically cause their destruction, info structure retrival and releasing may (for dynamic types) accompany plugin loading/unloading.

9.1.2.1 initialization

9.1.2.2 class creation

9.1.2.3 object creation

9.1.2.4 object destruction

9.1.2.5 class destruction

9.1.2.6 interface registration

9.1.2.7 interface class creation

9.1.2.8 interface class destruction

9.1.2.9 BSE Sources

Each source can have an (conceptually) infinite amount of input channels and serve a source network (BseSNet) with multiple output channels. Per source, a list of input channels is kept (source pointer and output channel id, along with an associated history hint). Sources also keep back links to other sources using its output channels, this is required to maintain automated history updates and purging.

9.1.2.10 BSE Source Networks

A BSE Source Network is an accumulation of BseSources that are interconnected to controll sample data flow. The net as a whole is maintained by a BseSNet object which keeps references of all sources contained in the net and provides means to store/retrieve undo/redo information for the whole net and implements the corresponding requirements to save and load the complete net at a certain configuration.

Implementation details:

9.2 BSE category description

Description of the BSE categories around 2003, before the removal of procedures.

9.2.1 BSE Categories

The purpose of BSE Categories is to provide a mapping of functionality provided by BSE and its plugins to GUI frontends. Categories are used to provide a hirarchical structure, to group certain services and to aid the user in finding required functionality.

9.2.1.1 Object Categories

BSE objects and procedures are "categorized" to easily integrate them into menu or similar operation structures in GUIs.

Objects that are derived from the BseSource class with the main intend to be used as synthesis modules in a synthesis network are categorized under the /Modules/ toplevel category, ordered by operational categories.

9.2.1.2 Core Procedures

Procedures provided by the BSE core are categorized under a subcategory of the /Methods/ toplevel category. The object type a procedure operates on is appended to the toplevel category to form a category name starting with /Methods/<ObjectType>/. Procedures implementing object methods need to take the object as first argument and follow a special naming convention (for the procedure name). To construct the procedure type name, the object type and method named are concatenated to form <ObjectType>+<MethodName>. This ensure proper namespacing of method names to avoid clashes with equally named methods of distinct object types. Some special internal procedures may also be entered under the /Proc/ toplevel category.

9.2.1.3 Utility Procedures

Procedures implementing utility functionality, usually implemented as scripts, are entered into one of the below listed categories. Depending on the category, some procedure arguments are automatically provided by the GUI, the name and type of automatic arguments are listed with the category in the following table:

Set of toplevel categories used by libbse.
Category Automatic arguments as (name:type) pairs
/Project/ project:BseProject
/SNet/ snet:BseSNet
/Song/ song:BseSong
/Part/ part:BsePart
/CSynth/ csynth:BseCSynth
/WaveRepo/ wave_repo:BseWaveRepo
/Wave/ wave:BseWave

The set of automatic arguments provided upon invocation is not restricted by te above lists, so caution should be taken when naming multiple arguments to a procedure auto_*.

9.2.1.4 Aliasing/Mapping

A certain BSE type (procedure or object) may be entered under several categories simultaneously, thus allowing multiple categories to refer (alias) to the same type (functionality).

9.2.1.5 Examples

 

Category examples from the Beast source code.
Category TypeName Comment
/Methods/BseProject/File/Store BseProject+store-bse BseProject procedure
/Modules/Spatial/Balance BseBalance synthesis module
/SNet Utility/Utils/Grid Align modules2grid scheme script

9.3 BseHeart - Synthesis Loop, Dec 1999

BSE's heart is a unique globally existing object of type BseHeart which takes care of glueing the PCM devices and the internal network structure together and handle syncronization issues.

BseHeart brings the internal network to work by incrementing a global BSE index variable, cycling all active BseSources to that new index, collecting their output chunks and writing them into the output PCM devices. As of now there are still some unsolved syncronization problems, such as having multiple PCM devices that run at different speeds. While this could be solved for multiples/fractions of their mixing frequencies, such as one device (card) running at 44100Hz and another one at 22050Hz, problems still remain for slight alterations in their oscilaltors if a device e.g. runs at 44099Hz (such as the es1371 from newer PCI SB cards).

For the time being, we do not handle different output/input frequencies at all and use our own syncronization within BSE, bound to GLib's main loop mechanism by BseHeart attaching a GSource.

To support user defined latencies, PCM Devices implement their own output buffer queue which is used for temporary storage of output buffers if the specified latency forces a delay greater than what can be achived through the device driver's queue. The devices also maintain an input queue for recorded data to avoid overruns in the PCM drivers, ideally these queues will immediatedly be emptied again because output is also required.

FIXME: A check may be necessary to catch indefinitely growing input queues due to input->output frequency differences. We will also need to catch input underruns here, though handling that is somwhat easier in that we can simply slide in a zero pad chunk there.

The fundamental BSE cycling (block-wise processing of all currently active sources) is bound to the PCM devices output requirements, according to the current latency setting. Integrated into GLib's main loop, we perform the following steps:

prepare():
We walk all input devices until one is found that reports requirement to process incoming data. We walk all output devices until one is found that reports requirement to process outgoing data or needs refilling of its output queue, according to the latency settiongs. If none is found, the devices report an estimated timeout value for how long it takes until they need to process further data. [Implementation note: as an optimization, we walk all PCM devices in one run and leave the distinction between input and output up to them] The minimum of the reported timeout values is used for GLib's main loop to determine when to check for dispatching again.
check():
We simply do the same thing as in prepare() to figure whether some PCM devices need processing and if necessary request dispatching.
dispatch():
We walk the output devices in order to flush remaining queued chunks, and collect reports on whether they need new input blocks according to the latency setting. We walk the input devices so they can process incoming data (queue it up in chunks). [Implementation note: as an optimization, we currently do these two walks in one step, leaving the details to the PCM devices] Now here's the tweak: if any output device reports the need for further input data, we perform a complete BSE cycle. If no output devices require further input data, we walk the input devices and check whether they have more than one chunk in their queue (and if necessary, fix that) this is required to catch overruns and constrain output latency.
cycle():
For input devices that have empty queues, we report underruns and pad their queues with zero chunks, i.e. we ensure all input PCM devices have at least one usable chunk in their input queue. We increment the BseIndex of all currently active BseSources, calc their output chunks and queue them up for all output sources connected to them. We walk the input devices and remove exactly one chunk from their input queues.

10 Appendix

 

10.1 One-dimensional Cubic Interpolation

With four sample values \(V_{0}\), \(V_{1}\), \(V_{2}\) and \(V_{3}\), cubic interpolation approximates the curve segment connecting \(V_{1}\) and \(V_{2}\), by using the beginning and ending slope, the curvature and the rate of curvature change to construct a cubic polynomial.

The cubic polynomial starts out as:

  1. \(f(x) = w_{3} x^3 + w_{2} x^2 + w_{1} x + w_{0}\)

Where \(0 <= x <= 1\), specifying the sample value of the curve segment between \(V_{1}\) and \(V_{2}\) to obtain.

To calculate the coefficients \(w_{0},…,w_{3}\), we set out the following conditions:

  1. \(f(0) = V_{1}\)
  2. \(f(1) = V_{2}\)
  3. \(f'(0) = V_{1}'\)
  4. \(f'(1) = V_{2}'\)

We obtain \(V_{1}'\) and \(V_{2}'\) from the respecting slope triangles:

  1. \(V_{1}' = \frac {V_{2} - V_{0}} {2}\)
  2. \(V_{2}' = \frac {V_{3} - V_{1}} {2}\)

With (6) → (4) and (7) → (5) we get:

  1. \(f'(0) = \frac {V_{2} - V_{0}} {2}\)
  2. \(f'(1) = \frac {V_{3} - V_{1}} {2}\)

The derivation of \(f(x)\) is:

  1. \(f'(x) = 3 w_{3} x^2 + 2 w_{2} x + w_{1}\)

From \(x=0\) → (1), i.e. (2), we obtain \(w_{0}\) and from \(x=0\) → (10), i.e. (8), we obtain \(w_{1}\). With \(w_{0}\) and \(w_{1}\) we can solve the linear equation system formed by (3) → (1) and (5) → (10) to obtain \(w_{2}\) and \(w_{3}\).

  1.   (3) → (1):   \(w_{3} + w_{2} + \frac {V_{2} - V_{0}} {2} + V_{1} = V_{2}\)
  2.   (5) → (10):   \(3 w_{3} + 2 w_{2} + \frac {V_{2} - V_{0}} {2} = \frac {V_{3} - V_{1}} {2}\)

With the resulting coefficients:

\[ \begin{aligned} w_{0} &= V_{1} & &(initial\:value) \\ w_{1} &= \frac{V_{2} - V_{0}} {2} & &(initial\:slope) \\ w_{2} &= \frac{-V_{3} + 4 V_{2} - 5 V_{1} + 2 V_{0}} {2} & &(initial\:curvature) \\ w_{3} &= \frac{V_{3} - 3 V_{2} + 3 V_{1} - V_{0}} {2} & &(rate\:change\:of\:curvature) \end{aligned} \]

Reformulating (1) to involve just multiplications and additions (eliminating power), we get:

  1. \(f(x) = ((w_{3} x + w_{2}) x + w_{1}) x + w_{0}\)

Based on \(V_{0},…,V_{3}\), \(w_{0},…,w_{3}\) and (13), we can now approximate all values of the curve segment between \(V_{1}\) and \(V_{2}\).

However, for practical resampling applications where only a specific precision is required, the number of points we need out of the curve segment can be reduced to a finite amount. Lets assume we require \(n\) equally spread values of the curve segment, then we can precalculate \(n\) sets of \(W_{0,…,3}[i]\), \(i=[0,…,n]\), coefficients to speed up the resampling calculation, trading memory for computational performance. With \(w_{0,…,3}\) in (1):

\[ \begin{alignedat} {2} f(x) \ &= & \frac{V_{3} - 3 V_{2} + 3 V_{1} - V_{0}} 2 x^3 \ + & \\ & & \frac{-V_{3} + 4 V_{2} - 5 V_{1} + 2 V_{0}} 2 x^2 \ + & \\ & & \frac{V_{2} - V_{0}} 2 x \ + & \\ & & V1 \ \ & \end{alignedat} \]

sorted for \(V_{0},…,V_{4}\), we have:

  1. \[\begin{aligned} f(x) \ = \ & V_{3} \ (0.5 x^3 - 0.5 x^2) \ + & \\ & V_{2} \ (-1.5 x^3 + 2 x^2 + 0.5 x) \ + & \\ & V_{1} \ (1.5 x^3 - 2.5 x^2 + 1) \ + & \\ & V_{0} \ (-0.5 x^3 + x^2 - 0.5 x) & \end{aligned}\]

With (14) we can solve \(f(x)\) for all \(x = \frac i n\), where \(i = [0, 1, 2, …, n]\) by substituting \(g(i) = f(\frac i n)\) with

  1. \(g(i) = V_{3} W_{3}[i] + V_{2} W_{2}[i] + V_{1} W_{1}[i] + V_{0} W_{0}[i]\)

and using \(n\) precalculated coefficients \(W_{0,…,3}\) according to:

\[ \begin{alignedat}{4} m &= \frac i n \\ W_{3}[i] &=& 0.5 m^3 & - & 0.5 m^2 & & \\ W_{2}[i] &=& -1.5 m^3 & + & 2 m^2 & + 0.5 m & \\ W_{1}[i] &=& 1.5 m^3 & - & 2.5 m^2 & & + 1 \\ W_{0}[i] &=& -0.5 m^3 & + & m^2 & - 0.5 m & \end{alignedat} \]

We now need to setup \(W_{0,…,3}[0,…,n]\) only once, and are then able to obtain up to \(n\) approximation values of the curve segment between \(V_{1}\) and \(V_{2}\) with four multiplications and three additions using (15), given \(V_{0},…,V_{3}\).

10.2 Modifier Keys

There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the behaviour of modifiers (shift and/or control) with regards to GUI operations like selections and drag and drop behaviour.

According to the Gtk+ implementation, modifiers relate to DND operations according to the following list:

GDK drag-and-drop modifier keys
Modifier Operation Note / X-Cursor
none copy (else move (else link))
SHIFT move GDK_FLEUR
CTRL copy GDK_PLUS, GDK_CROSS
SHIFT+CTRL link GDK_UL_ANGLE

Regarding selections, the following email provides a short summary:

From: Tim Janik <timj@gtk.org>
To: Hacking Gnomes <Gnome-Hackers@gnome.org>
Subject: modifiers for the second selection
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0207111747190.12292-100000@rabbit.birnet.private>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 18:10:52 +0200 (CEST)

hi all,

in the course of reimplementing drag-selection for a widget,
i did a small survey of modifier behaviour in other (gnome/
gtk) programs and had to figure that there's no current
standard behaviour to adhere to:

for all applications, the first selection works as
expected, i.e. press-drag-release selects the region
(box) the mouse was draged over. also, starting a new
selection without pressing any modifiers simply replaces
the first one. differences occour when holding a modifier
(shift or ctrl) when starting the second selection.

Gimp:
Shift upon button press:        the new seleciton is added to the existing one
Ctrl upon button press:         the new selection is subtracted from the
                                existing one
Shift during drag:              the selection area (box or circle) has fixed
                                aspect ratio
Ctrl during drag:               the position of the initial button press
                                serves as center of the selected box/circle,
                                rather than the upper left corner

Gnumeric:
Shift upon button press:        the first selection is resized
Ctrl upon button press:         the new seleciton is added to the existing one

Abiword (selecting text regions):
Shift upon button press:        the first selection is resized
Ctrl upon button press:         triggers a compound (word) selection that
                                replaces the first selection

Mozilla (selecting text regions):
Shift upon button press:        the first selection is resized

Nautilus:
Shift or Ctrl upon buttn press: the new selection is added to or subtracted
                                from the first selection, depending on whether
                                the newly selected region was selected before.
                                i.e. implementing XOR integration of the newly
                                selected area into the first.

i'm not pointing this out to start a flame war over what selection style
is good or bad and i do realize that different applications have
different needs (i.e. abiword does need compound selection, and
the aspect-ratio/centering style for gimp wouldn't make too much
sense for text), but i think for the benfit of the (new) users,
there should me more consistency regarding modifier association
with adding/subtracting/resizing/xoring to/from existing selections.

---
ciaoTJ