OVERVIEW
  Tclmidi is language designed for creating and editing standard
MIDI files.  With the proper device interface it will also play
and record MIDI files.  Since tclmidi is a language supporting
function calls, recursion and conditionals, you can use these
features for editing, sequencing and writing complex scripts.
The brave might even want to try their hand at algorithmic
composition.
  The basis of tclmidi is John Ousterhout's popular TCL language.
tclmidi adds a few new commands specific to manipulating MIDI
files, and playing/recording them.  You'll need to have TCL-7.5
installed on your system to build tclmidi.  I no longer support
earlier versions.
  I've tried to be POSIX complient while writing tclmidi.  It has
been built on numerous machines and should compile on any Unix
like machine with a C++ compiler.  It now also runs under Windows.
  Tclmidi comes with a device driver to interface with a few types of
MIDI cards and also support for using your serial port as a MIDI
interface.  Supported cards include MPU401, MQX32, Gravis UltraSound
and SoundBlaster (though both the GUS and SB support is limited to the
MIDI ports, the driver does not yet use these board to generate their
own sounds - the SB hasn't been tested much either).  There is some
proto code to use the GUS to generate its own sound, but it doesn't
work yet.  Look for it in future releases.  Tclmidi will also support
some features of the different cards, including the SMPTE support found
on the MQX32.
  The driver tries to be OS independent too.  90% of the driver is
completely portable, only the remaining 10% needs to be rewritten to
support a new UNIX varient.  This distribution comes with support for
BSD/OS, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Unixware (though the Unixware driver
isn't completely tested).  These five cover a wide range of systems and
one should make a good basis for a port to a new system.

WHAT'S NEW IN TCLMIDI-3.1.0
  Tclmidi is now a loadable module that works in conjunction with
Tcl-7.5.  There are no longer a tclmidi or tkmidi executables.  Instead
you use the standard tclsh or wish interpreters and then load the
tclmidi commands using the "package require tclmidi" command.
  Tclmidi now builds using the "configure" script.  You should no longer
need to edit a Makefile.  Just "./configure; make" to build the package.
  Installation has gotten a bit trickier.  This is because of TCL's
method of locating loadable libraries and building the pkgIndex.tcl file,
not because of something found in tclmidi itself.  By default, tclmidi
installs the library in /usr/local/lib/tclmidi and builds a pkgIndex.tcl
in that directory.  In order for tclsh or wish to find these files
you must add /usr/local/lib/tclmidi to your TCLLIBPATH environment
variable or add "lappend auto_path /usr/local/lib/tclmidi" to the
beginning of any script that uses tclmidi.
  The tclmidi driver now has some proto-code for using a Gravis
Ultra Sound (both old and new PnP) to synthesize sound directly.
Unfortunately, this code doesn't work yet.  This will be my major
goal for the next release (as well as supporting other sound cards).
  Windows users will be pleased to learn that tclmidi will run
under Windows.  I'm very unfamiliar with the Windows 95 environment
and the Visual C++ compiler and thus don't have a Makefile to build
the .dll from source (VC++ uses "projects" and I can't figure out how
to create a Makefile from a project").  However, rest assured that
I do build the .dll from the exact same source with no modifications.
I also pre-compile the tclmidi.dll and make it available for anonymous
ftp.  If there are any Windows wizards out there that would like to help
me create a Makefile and/or write a good installation script, please
let me know.
  Added a new command, midigrep.  It allows you to search tracks
looking for events using pattern matching.  Much faster than doing the
same thing with tcl code.
  And of course, there have been a few bug fixes.

REQUIREMENTS
  You need tcl-7.5 installed.  You don't need the source though, as
all the information tclmidi needs can be found in the installed header
files.
  You also need a C++ compiler.  G++ is free and works.

COMPILATION NOTES
  ./configure
  make
  make install

WINDOWS SUPPORT
  Is back!  As I mentioned above, I don't have a Makefile to build it
from the source (VC++ uses "projects"), but it does build from the
unmodified sources.  I also make a pre-compiled version of tclmidi.dll
available so you don't have to compile it yourself.
  You need tcl-7.5 installed on your system.  You can get pre-built
versions of tcl and tk via anonymous ftp from ftp.smli.com.
  To install tclmidi, you need to put the tclmidi.dll file in some
directory that tclsh or wish will search and then build a pkgIndex.tcl
that references the dll.  I'm going to try to write a tcl script
that will do the installation automatically.  For now I'll install
tclmidi.dll in the tcl lib directory, but eventually I'd like to
put it in a different directory and just have people set their
TCLLIBPATH environment variable.  Does anyone out there know how to
set an environment variable under Windows/Windows 95/Windows NT?  If
so, please let me know.

MISSING THINGS
  Scripts.  I've included four, mplay, mrec, minfo and midtocl.
If you write some good ones, send them to me and I'll include
them.  Lucho Georgiev has written a few, which can be found in
the contrib directory (though by now they are out of date and I
haven't had a chance to update them).  I'm hoping others will
contribute too.
  Xdrum support.  Xdrum won't work with this version of tclmidi.
I'll eventually redo xdrum to work with tclmidi, but it might
be a while.  I also want to write a X based score editor based
on this stuff.  That will probably take *quite* a while.

MAILING LIST
  I've set up a mailing list for tclmidi discussion.  To subscribe,
send mail to tclmidi-request@boogie.com and include the phrase
"subscribe" in the body of the message.  The subject line is
ignored, so don't put the phrase there.  To send mail to the list,
email tclmidi@boogie.com.

SPECIAL THANKS
  Thanks goes to all those who have helped me get this thing working.
Extra special thanks goes to the following for putting up with a lot
of system crashes and debugging to make the driver ports usable.
Thank them for getting the driver to work.  Blame me for any bugs
you find.
    Greg Wolodkin <greg@eecs.berkeley.edu>   -  SMPTE, Linux, all around help
    Ralf Jaegar  <raja@rajas.rhein-main.de>  -  Linux
    Andreas Gustafsson <gson@niksula.hut.fi> -  NetBSD
    Luchezar Georgiev <lucho@tu-varna.bg>    -  Linux
    Alberto Vignani <alberto.vignani@pmn.it> -  Linux
    Allaoua Bouabdallah <alawa@tao.aiuniv-paris8.fr> - UnixWare
    John Utz <spaz@u.washington.edu>         -  FreeBSD
    Dejan Vucinic <dejan@mit.edu>            -  Serial interface
    Brian Eriks <beriks@mercury.jorsm.com>   -  Windows

  And of course I'd like to thank everyone who has been using
tclmidi, finding bugs and helping me test.

mike
durian@boogie.com
