Kunquat 0.4.1 "editor"

This release of Kunquat features a graphical user interface for editing Kunquat compositions. As a result of the user interface development, the Kunquat library also got many fixes and additions.

The GUI contains the necessary controls for modifying pattern data and the order in which they are played. Other basic functionality includes importing/exporting of Kunquat compositions and simple undo/redo functionality. For the time being, we have kept the instrument editor very minimal and the DSP configurator is missing altogether. We will implement these after major changes in the format that we will focus on in the next release.

The Kunquat library also contains many improvements over previous versions. The most important addition is the support for triggering events through the library API. Most events triggered through the API work in exactly the same way as they do inside patterns. The triggering API also supports some special events that can be used for controlling the playback in ways that are not possible through pattern data. These control events include stopping of the playback cursor and playing a single pattern repeatedly. While the triggering API is essential for the editor, we will also utilise it further in later releases when we add explicit support for interactive compositions.

We made the error reporting mechanism of the library more convenient for programmers. Instead of using a custom format, the error messages of the library are now JSON objects. This makes it easy for the library to include more detailed information while keeping the parsing of information simple for the programmer.

During the development of the editor, we also encountered and fixed many outstanding bugs in the library. Many of these were related to certain modification sequences of composition data that do not occur in simple playback situations. Another important issue was that a design oversight enabled the user to write infinite compositions.

Some details of the file format have changed. Most importantly, we changed the magic ID “kunquat” to the shorter “kqt”. We also changed the format of pattern data into a more consistent form that is easier for programmers to handle.