• Example scripts made by other users or developers for similar tasks.
• The Rubato programming interface descriptions.
• The Rubato source code and user interface files (NIBs).

It should be noted that feedback from the users concerning FScript desires can be a valuable resource for deciding, which API (e.g. for hook functions) and what documentation is needed in future versions of a Rubette.

4 OpenMusic: Composing

OpenMusic is an interactive software tool for composing, developed by Carlos Augusto Agon and Gérard Assayag (see Assayag et al., 1999). The main idea for its creation was that composers who want to use the computer for creating (generating) musical material can in principle not be satisfied by a fixed tool. Also a plug-in architecture like Rubato does not satisfy a composer since it is too difficult to combine the components in unforeseeably creative ways or to create new components. Only a programming language is flexible enough to satisfy the growing modeling demands of a composer using software in a creative way.

OpenMusic consists of a visual programming environment (the core) and a collection of packages for different musical and non-musical programming and visualization tasks. The core defines the visual programming language, a framework for the main user interactions on graphical objects and means for storing and loading user defined constructs.

OpenMusic is written in LISP and currently needs the Macintosh Common Lisp (MCL) environment. Because OpenMusic transforms visual programming constructs into (textual) LISP constructs, it is able to offer not only OpenMusic dedicated programming elements (music functions, control structures, score editors) to the user, but also to map existing elements of the base language (functions and classes written in LISP/CLOS¹⁰

) into the visual environment. A part of the MCL programming environment is include in OpenMusic, providing a help system for LISP constructs, a LISP source code editor, etc.

4.1 User Levels and Roles in Configuration and Programming

The role of a composer in OpenMusic is that of a programmer. At first the activities within a patch¹¹

can be seen as configuration activities. But when making an abstraction from a patch in order to use it as a building block in another context these activities turn seamlessly into programming.

The following levels of usage and programming can be identified:

• Beginner: uses a few components within a patch and linear programming structures.