[PD-dev] svn commit access request, related to double precision pd

katja katjavetter at gmail.com
Tue Nov 1 02:44:52 CET 2011


Hello dev list,

In recent months I changed some lines in Pd core code to make it
double-precision-compilable. I'd like to help a bit with making
Pd-extended ready for double precision as well. After puzzling on
repository layout and build system, and figuring out a decent test
method (together with Fred Jan Kraan), I am now ready to commit
rewritten lines for one external lib, creb. It is for this library
that I want to request commit access now, but it doesn't stop here. A
brief description of the project:

Pd-double is a fork of Miller Puckette's Pure Data, patched with
mentioned double-ready lines. It has (and will continue to have) the
same API, apart from the option to compile in single or double
precision at will. Pd-double enables double precision builds of
vanilla Pd, and is tested to work well on OSX and Linux. I still have
to work on the Windows side of things. In the meantime Pd-double is
useful as a framework against which external libraries can be
developed towards double-readiness. A usable development setup is
described on http://puredata.info/dev/pd-double/PdDoubleDevelopment.
Convenient unit-test abstractions are introduced here:
http://www.katjaas.nl/pdunittests/pdunittests.html. I'd like to invite
all Pd-devs to join in. Rewriting and testing classes assumes a fair
knowledge of their functioning, and Pd-extended is huge. For me, doing
one lib at a time works well, thoroughly testing the whole of it
before committing. When starting on another lib, I'll ask commit
access again. I could also submit patch files instead, if that is
preferred in some case.

A few words on my background so you know who's wanting to poke in your
code. During a one-year course at the Sonology Department of the Hague
Conservatory (Holland), I learned the basics of dsp math and
programming. That was 2007-2008, and I've never stopped music
programming since, documenting my efforts and experiments on
www.katjaas.nl. Pd has become my favourite environment, because of
it's open source and active community, and because I like how you can
prototype a neat audio tool quite fast, with GUI and all, while C code
is still an option to solve details. A few Pd-externals and projects
are shared online via mentioned site (nb 'slicycle' stuff and
[soundtouch~]). I teach Pd workshops sometimes. The
single-precisioness of Pd has been my only serious gripe. See
http://www.katjaas.nl/doubleprecision/doubleprecision.html for
illustrations of precision-bottlenecks. Working on this topic, I hope
to contribute to the wonderful tool and the community supporting it.

Katja



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