[OSC_dev] Everyone Invited - SYNoscopy

[salsaman at xs4all.nl]

On Sun, December 21, 2008 20:21, Jeff Mann wrote:
> Hi all -
>
> Interesting discussion going on here. Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
> My use of OSC is perhaps different from most of the applications being
> talked about in this "open media control" discussion.
>
> I'm working more with interactive art installations, kinetic/robotic
> sculpture, physical computing, and so on. So for me, most of the
> concepts of "multimedia" being talked about, i.e. decks, play/pause,
> etc., are not relevant. And even more fundamental concepts like a
> "controller" and "synth/player", tend to make assumptions about overall
> system architecture that are not appropriate for my needs (I've found
> this is also a bias of OSC itself). For example, I would be more
> interested in interactions within networks of autonomous peer nodes with
> various capabilities, behaviours, and intelligence...
>
> On the other hand, there are some topics being addressed here that are
> highly relevant for what I'm working on, and I think for users of OSC in
> general. I'm very eager to see some solutions. For example:
>
> salsaman at xs4all.nl wrote:
>  >> On Tue, December 16, 2008 10:13, Gaspard Bucher wrote:
>>>>> We are currently all bumping into the fact that OSC is a *partial*
>>>>> standard. It says how to adresse methods, but that's about it. Those
>>>>> of us building tools that need to interact smoothly with one another
>>>>> need some standard ways to get return values, get/set parameters,
>>>>> etc.
>>>>>
>>>> Right again. This is precisely what is needed.
>>> As a minimum we should have:
>>>> - a standard for getting/setting/querying values
>>>> - standard for getting/setting parameters (including where there can
>>>> be
>>>> a variable number of parameters of various types)
>>>> - a "hello" standard for unknown applications
>>>> - a method of capability discovery with some standardised methods
>
> One of the most frustrating things about OSC for me - and apparently for
> many others - is the lack of definition for querying values and
> parameters, discovery, and other closely related issues.
>
> For example, the MAKE Controller microcontroller board uses this system:
>
> /servo/1/position 26 - set servo motor 1 to position 26.
> /servo/1/position - with no argument, query the current position.
> /servo/1/position 26 - this is the response to the above query.
>
> This is all well and good, until you try to get two MAKE controllers to
> talk to each other - board A queries board B, but the response actually
> sets the position of board A's servo...
>

Yes, another BIG problem I have discovered is when your getter and setter
have different parameters.


So I am pretty much decided on, e.g.

/clip/start/set,100  :: sets value of start frame for current clip to 100
/clip/start/set,4,100  :: set value of start frame for clip 4 to 100
/clip/start/get,100 :: get value of start frame for clip 100.



I am still following this discussion with interest, but I am running out
of time to respond to each individual message. My current thoughts are at:
http://openmediacontrol.wetpaint.com/page/summary

I plan to start implementing this in the coming week - sorry, I am really
on a tight time budget, and after this make a formal proposal for OMC
layer 1 (syntax layer). (layer 2 being a general set of commands like
/quit).


Cheers,
Gabriel.
http://lives.sourceforge.net