The Kable Thread - 0.2.4 available for Win, Mac OS X & Linux

[hezee]

Hello everybody,

I'm hezee the developer of Kable - an open source software project for the mapping and manipulation of messages sent by all kinds of devices (for now this means MIDI controller) - which I started for this contest.
The initial version I provided is 0.1.0. This means it's a stable but feature incomplete version. For a list of planned features please see the features document. If you want to submit a new feature request you are welcome to do this in the feature request tracker.
The same goes for any bugs you might find. Please report them in the bug tracker.
For everything else and all questions please post them in this thread so I don't get lost.

This software still lacks some good documentation.
For now please refer to the (incomplete but better than nothing) User Reference and Getting Started Guide which can be found at the project homepage.
Also consider watching the 10 min walkthrough screencast.


Mac OS X and Linux version now available here!
I tested the Linux version and everything worked fine besides the fact that I was able to use only hardware MIDI controller. Virtual devices like /dev/midi01 were not recognized. I'm looking forward to fix this in one of the next releases.

The Mac version is completely untested.
If you are on Mac and want to try it out any feedback is gladly welcome.

Windows user should get version 0.2.0 and update via the Update Service.
There will be no new full release until version 0.3.0.
Changes can be found on the history page.

Thanks,
hezee

[spuddle]

The concept is great, but I'm a little scared to jump in to something this complex.

What are example set-ups you could do with this? As in what "need" are you providing a solution for?

Thanks!

[exonerate]

hi,

i had a problem with loading before, but i've tried it again and now it loads fine.

So i'm not sure what the original problem was, i just got a really long error message, and i can't remember any of what it said sorry.

I have the latest Java runtime installed, version 6 i think it is.

But anyway it's working fine now, although i can't figure out at the moment how to use it or what it supposed to do exactly.

I love modular enviroments though, so i'll keep poking at it till i figure some thing out

cheers

Exo

[hezee]

The concept is great, but I'm a little scared to jump in to something this complex.

What are example set-ups you could do with this? As in what "need" are you providing a solution for?

Thanks!

Damn, I thought the GUI would make it less scary and with only two components I would consider it quite 'lite'

I plan to put up some examples later this week. You can check them out at the Configuration Sharelets wiki page.

As for the 'need'. I made this especially for live musicians who want to get the most out of their little boxes. I for one would like to have my FCB1010 manage on which channel my BCR2000 sends it's control change messages.
Here is an image to show how to set this up:

(right click an choose view image to see it full size).

Hope that makes it a little more clear

Cheers,
hezee

[hezee]

hi,

i had a problem with loading before, but i've tried it again and now it loads fine.

So i'm not sure what the original problem was, i just got a really long error message, and i can't remember any of what it said sorry.

I have the latest Java runtime installed, version 6 i think it is.

But anyway it's working fine now, although i can't figure out at the moment how to use it or what it supposed to do exactly.

I love modular enviroments though, so i'll keep poking at it till i figure some thing out

cheers

Exo

Hi Exo,

I'm glad it works now. Should you ever run into the problem again can you please check the \workspace\.metadata\ sub folder. There should be a .log file. Would be great if you could file a short bug report here.
Just click Submit New and attach the log file. That will do and would be of great help.

Thanks,
hezee

[Dozius]

Thanks for the updated docs! I'm going to give it another go now that I know how to reference MIDI messages properly. Kable seems like a great tool in the making.

[exonerate]

After some more poking around i think i've pretty much figured it out.

Seems like it will be a good tool for manipulating Midi.

There are some things that are really annoying though, things popping up all the time giving you options, IMO is not a good idea i know these thing are probally there for convinence, but theres really no need it just annoying.

If i want to choose a gate or what ever then i'm more than happy to go to the toolbox, i don't need the option for them to pop up everytime i stop the mouse.

Also i'm having problems just getting the modules to connect together, everytime i try to connect them, i can't see any inputs on the other module and i can't connect anywhere. the inputs only show up on the currently selected module, and also they keep moving around .

I think that the inputs should be visible at all times and they should allways be in the same place. Obviously these things i've mention have been designed this way but i honestly couldn't use a piece of software that behaves like this.

I like the idea but i'd like to allways see the inputs/outputs and have no annoying pop ups.

cheers

Exo

[hezee]

After some more poking around i think i've pretty much figured it out.

Seems like it will be a good tool for manipulating Midi.

There are some things that are really annoying though, things popping up all the time giving you options, IMO is not a good idea i know these thing are probally there for convinence, but theres really no need it just annoying.

If i want to choose a gate or what ever then i'm more than happy to go to the toolbox, i don't need the option for them to pop up everytime i stop the mouse.

Also i'm having problems just getting the modules to connect together, everytime i try to connect them, i can't see any inputs on the other module and i can't connect anywhere. the inputs only show up on the currently selected module, and also they keep moving around .

I think that the inputs should be visible at all times and they should allways be in the same place. Obviously these things i've mention have been designed this way but i honestly couldn't use a piece of software that behaves like this.

I like the idea but i'd like to allways see the inputs/outputs and have no annoying pop ups.

cheers

Exo

Hi Exo,
thanks for the feedback.

The things you've mentioned are actually designed that way... but not by me
It's the default behavior of the underlying frameworks I use and I agree with you that they are somewhat annoying.
The popping connectors will go away in the future and there will be some ports added to the components to make clear what can be connected.
For now I've integrated a preferences dialog which allows to disable the connectors ("Show connector handles" check box) and the popup bar. But please note that the popup bar is needed to manually add Conditions and Expressions, so you might want to leave that enabled.

To connect the components you must use the Connection tool from the Palette. You probably already figured that out. It's really a bit confusing.

Cheerio,
hezee

[kodama]

Hopefully a Mac version is released soon, otherwise I don't see the point of a java app that only runs on windows?

[hezee]

Hopefully a Mac version is released soon, otherwise I don't see the point of a java app that only runs on windows?

Well to be honest, I didn't release a Mac version because no one showed interest in it and it requires a little work to put the package together, which I preferred to put in other things, like adding more features.
But with the new update service I could really release a Mac version as the updates will work for each platform.
Mhm, let's see if I can wrap something up tomorrow.

As for Java I have my reasons to choose it but I don't want to start a flame war here

[hezee]

Just want to say that I'm working on the Mac and Linux release but I could not get the files exported correctly so I need some more time.

Meanwhile version 0.2.4 is available with a very useful Console addition for the Runtime.

[hezee]

Bump for the Linux & Mac version and the screencast.

[tuz]

hi hezee,

great work!!! can you send me the direct links for each platform so i can get it updated on the dc page?