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 familiar 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.

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

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

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




testing µO: the fast & easy way

Download the ready-to-go 235 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.
last updated on March 9th, 2010


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 containing all required third-party code.

Squeak images 3.8 to 3.10 are supported. Get them at squeak.org


Linux users may want a VM with MIDI support (at the time of this writing, the VM proposed at http://www.squeakvm.org/unix/ does not appear to have a functioning MIDI plugin). Cesare Marilungo was kind enough to contribute this VM: squeak3.9-10.tar.gz; any relative question or bug report should be sent to the SqueakAudio mailing list.

Note that MIDI support is not required by µO though.


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 3.8.2 image basic
(3) a bundle of all third-party packages required by muO
(4) the current µO code: muO.235.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 Squeak3.8.2-6779.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.

- 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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