Hello all, another monthly report about the KXStudio project is here.
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-carla 2.2-rc1 got released, and wineasio.
-distrho-ports too, but that was mostly for packagers
-with disthro-ports migrated to meson, work started for legacy/new ports.
-legacy with vst/lv2, new with vst2/vst3 and lv2. Keeping the juce fork updated, even though upstream not interested on lv2 at all.
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-work being done for automated builds, most of it already complete.
-not that useful for linux, because distros pick up stuff quickly, it is more for win/mac folks for which is much harder to build stuff.
-the automated builds will cover plugins (distrho-ports, dpf-plugins and more), carla and even jack.
-It is not completely ready yet, but very close. expect a few announcements regarding this in the coming weeks.
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-I know people have been asking about ardour, will get to that eventually, sorry for the delay.
-Ardour is a different kind of build (I want to repackage the official binary, authors are ok with it),
-so I need to find a nice way of handling it. Previously it was all very manual work, want to avoid that.
-Focus in past few weeks has been on Carla and then the automated build setup, so packaging got pushed aside for now.
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-package updates...
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+ This actually covers June and July, since there was not much to tell during June.
- Anyway, a lot of work is going into Carla,
- lots of bug-fixes.
- A good collection of them are piling up, which makes a v2.1.1 release worthy, so expect that in the next few days.
+ So... first, for those that did not notice, there was quite a few linux/opensource-audio releases on July 15, for the
+
+ Quarterly Release Pact.
+ The "Quarterly Release Pact" is an informal agreement between developers to do releases of as much software as possible on a common day.
+ This is a nice way to:
- One of the new features in Carla is Linux VST3 support, already available if you use carla-git.
- There is also a category filter in the add-plugin dialog now, and
- better handling of high-dpi mode.
- That is basically it in regards to frontend/GUI changes, everything else is on the backend/audio-host side.
- All of this will be in Carla v2.2, with a tentative release date of July 15.
+ I can speak for myself that the release day is a great motivator to push releases.
+ When such date is near, everything that has reached a certain point where a release is perhaps worth doing
+ (but usually would be hold-off due to not being "perfect enough"), just gets released.
+ Because to be fair, there is no point on holding off a release for long periods of time.
+ If something really goes wrong, a quick bug-fix can be done, so why not. It is software, these things happen sometimes..
- Other developments happening behind the scenes are a
- DISTRHO-Ports
- update
- (setting old JUCE aside and using new
- juce6
- branch for Linux VST3 plugins), plus
- updating its build system to meson.
- The WineASIO
- project was finally given to me officially, so expect a release soon for that too.
- There is also a big
- DPF rework
- going on, and a new project for
- cross-platform LV2 plugin binaries.
- Those will be announced at a later point in time, once ready.
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- Regarding package updates in the repositories, there have been a few since the last monthly report. Those are:
+ With that in mind, the
+ DISTRHO-Ports
+ and
+ WineASIO
+ projects got new releases.
+ I worked (with some help) to move the DISTRHO-Ports build system from the super-old premake3 build system to meson.
+ While irrelevant for users, it is very important for Linux distribution packagers because premake3 is simply no longer maintained
+ (and thus not even installable in some cases).
+ The other changes were not really that substantial in my view, but why not release anyway?
+ As someone who has done a few packages myself, I can understand the pain of those that want to package something but have their work made difficult by this kind of problem.
+ (If all goes well, DISTRHO-Ports provided plugins will be installable as packages in the next Ubuntu version already!)
+
+ DISTRHO-Ports
+ has been reworked in a way so that we can keep the existing plugins untouched,
+ while adding/supporting new plugins made with JUCE6.
+ The "legacy" plugins will have LV2 and VST2 formats, while new ones will support LV2, VST2 and VST3.
+ I plan to write a tutorial on how to add a plugin to this project, so that other people than me can contribute.
+ This will increase the number of ported plugins drastically, as it does not have to wait on me to to do it. (I have a lot on my plate already..)
+ Once we have a good number of new plugins, or the next release day comes (in 3 months), you can count on yet another release! :)
+
+ Regarding
+ The WineASIO,
+ it was ready for release for some time, so I did the release in more of a "why not?" state.
+ You can read more about this release
+
+ here,
+ but in short, I am now maintaining the WineASIO project. :)
+ This is because the previous maintainer wished to step down doing so, and I was already fixing WineASIO for packaging in the KXStudio repositories anyway,
+ which basically involves maintaining it.
+ It is important to note that it is really only maintaining the code (so that it keeps working on new Wine versions).
+ So there is not going to be any new features added to it, only bug-fixes.
+
+ In other news,
+
+ Carla 2.2 Release Candidate 1 is out.
+ It was a bit more rushed than I wished for, with a late release because I had to fight with some macOS incompatibility issues..
+ but that should not happen too much in the future.
+ I already have in mind what to focus on for version 2.3, but I really hope that with this 2.2 release I can kinda already leave Carla a bit on the side
+ (which was already supposed to have happened in version 2.1 by the way), because other projects really need my attention right now.
+ The final Carla 2.2 release is just siting on a timer now in a way.
+ My target is to make it available for Ubuntu 20.10, so I will fix whatever bugs I can until the time arrives for Ubuntu 20.10 package freeze.
+ (So final release in October 2020)
+
+ Unrelated to the release pact now, I am working on automated builds for a few projects, learning along the way how that is usually handled.
+ This is not that useful for Linux users, because distributions can build and package up stuff quickly; it is more for macOS and Windows users for whom it is much harder to build stuff.
+ The automated builds will cover plugins (distrho-ports, dpf-plugins and more), Carla and even JACK.
+ It is not completely ready yet, but very, very close to done. Expect a few announcements regarding this in the coming weeks!
+
+ Something I need to mention... I know people have been asking about an ardour package update (in KXStudio repositories).
+ I will get to it eventually, yes, sorry for the delay.
+ Ardour is a different kind of build, so I need to find a nice way of handling it.
+ (I want to repackage the official binary, as authors are ok with it)
+ Previously it was all very manual work, it is better to avoid that this time around.
+ My focus in the past few weeks has been on Carla and now the automated build setups, so packaging got put aside for now.
+
+ And speaking of packages, here is the list of updates and additions in regards to June and July 2020:
- Not so much work got done in regards to the website and documentation.
- Perhaps for next time.
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- That is all for now, stay safe out there. + That is all for now, stay safe and sane out there!