by Stéphane Rollandin
hepta@zogotounga.net

What is µO ?

µO (or muO, or MuO, just as you like) stands for "Musical Objects". It is a quite large ecosystem of tools and representations for musical composition.

Unlike most programs, it does not provide a rigid framework for editing a document; instead it is an open playfield were musical ideas can be tested, visualized and manipulated in a very rich way.

The kind of data produced by µO includes MIDI files, MIDI and OSC output streams, Csound scores and orchestras, graphical representations and sound files. Since it is also a programming language, it can potentially import and export about anything.

What µO is not: it is not a digital audio workstation; it does not make sound by itself; it is not adapted for real-time performance; it will not compose music automatically; it will not bring you instant gratification; it is neither simple nor easy to use; it is probably not what you want.

µO includes a port of the older GeoMaestro system for KeyKit; it also includes the Csound Blocks application.

µO is based on the Squeak open source multimedia smalltalk implementation; it is a full-fledged programming language.

µO and Squeak form the right hemisphere of Surmulot's brain, whose left hemisphere is Csound-x for Emacs.

µO is still (and for long) in beta stage.




Where is the documentation ?

Documentation, examples and tutorials are included within µO itself.

Most of it is interactive: it is much more fun than static external documentation. Note that µO being under active development, the current documentation is far from covering all the topics that should be covered. If you feel that an aspect of µO really needs better documentation, please tell me. Feedback is always welcome !

Reference papers about specific topics are in the making; here are the current draft documents:

Testing µO: the fast & easy way

Download the ready-to-go 286 image archive, unzip it anywhere and start Squeak.exe if you are on Windows. For other platforms, you will need to install Squeak and use it to open the image file.

That's it; you don't need the following instructions.
Updated on May 8th, 2013


Building µO (for experienced squeakers)

The current code for µO is available on SqueakMap: check up the entry "muO".
Before installing, download the archive in SqueakMap package "muO dependencies" and uncompress it in the same directory as your Squeak image; this should give you a "muo-cache" folder providing all required third-party code.

Latest releases require a 4.1 or newer Squeak image. Get it at squeak.org or just below
.

Building µO on Windows (for novices)

To install the current development snapshot of µO on a Windows system, follow these steps:

- download the following files:
(1) the Squeak virtual machine (for Windows) and .source file
(2) the Squeak 4.3 image
(3) a bundle of all third-party packages required by muO
(4) the current µO code: muO.286.sar

- uncompress (1), (2) and (3) in an empty folder; keep this folder untouched for later installations.
- copy the folder, open the copy and drag the Squeak4.1.image file onto squeak.exe: you will see the Squeak window.
- now drop (4) in the window: a menu appears, select item "install SAR".
.. that´s it: just wait for the installation to proceed. It may take a while.

- to upgrade, only download the newer .sar file, and start again from a new copy of the base folder.
(you can get the latest .sar by following the last link from this page: http://map.squeak.org/package/90a2baac-b877-4412-8280-0b148f85c415)





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