03 августа 2018

                              News
                        by Alone Coder

I have perturbations at my job and fun at my home, and I also
drowned in redecoration, so I missed all demoparties and
postponed this issue of ACNews. I even suppose that the next one
will be also delayed because the deeds are far from the end. In
turn, this year I was able (finally) make my way to a swimming
pond with Louisa and even with kids - one after another. On
foot. With a baby carriage.

I saw Alexey Bugrov (who helped me with computer at Hacker
Contest of1996, where I presented my Font Editor ). Now he has 
his own laboratory developing hardware. He seems very tired. I
showed him demos, he expressed interest in multicolors and my
border intro KOT :).

I called T(c)S by phone. He still lives where we gathered in
2000-2002, and runs his firm that repairs cellphones. Very busy.
I wanted to lure him to our factory as a microcontroller
programmer, but in vain. It is hard to find such experts in
Ryazan.

CyberDaemon periodically sends news from game world (for 
example, about a new game by STEP of Star Inheritance fame, but
not for Speccy ...).

Arwald continues to teach 2D animation at RGRTU-film studio, but 
I couldn't catch him there.

Wanderer, after22 years, wrote a new game - CELL 3326: 
https://zxwanderer.github.io/cellЗЗ26/ This is a quest based on
a new engine like Laser Squad. Being not a gamer, I completed it
and corrected several messages in English version. I also asked
Wanderer for that microcontroller job, but I'm bad in head 
hunting :)

Hippiman released Dizzy and the Mystical Letter with a new 
DizzyAGE -like engine that he wrote in NedoLang. At the moment, 
the game exists in Russian, English, and Poruguese. I can't
believe that new Spectrum games aboutDizzy were not made for
this long... Are we so old? Today Hippiman adds latest changes
in the engine to release it separately. The levels can be made
directly with DizzyAGE editor. Now everyone can make his own
Dizzy game :)

Karbo disappeared again, so his track couldn't appear in the 
game. As I guess, now he is living in the country, and there
must be a lot of work in summer.

John Silver writes music scores for his orchestra and goes on 
detachments. The last time he was not here for a whole month.

In turn, one composer fromScotland wrote that he started to
study Pro Tracker 3, and promised to share the results when
ready :)

DimkaM wrote a manual about high memory handling in IAR Z80 C 
compiler (press"3" ). There is no such possibility in NedoLang
yet ( Hippiman, in his Dizzy engine, placed code and data in
memory by hand). Maybe sometimes we would invent anything
cooler? :)

Unreal Speccy Portable now includes support for extra screen 
modes of ATM2 ( Fyrex wanted to read ACNews comfortably and made
it :)). However, the memory still works only in higher window,
and ports#7ffd and #fff7 are supposedly setting the same
register.

Utz/irrlicht project organizes a graphics compo for64 colours 
per pixel (as in Eye Ache 2 ) at International Symposium on
Bits and Beverages. The pictures should be drawn in 
StellarPaint: 
http://irrlichtproject.de/stellarpaint/
If you prefer to use your own editor, simply create a64x48
pixel imagehoriz. x vert. ) using the palette supplied here
(.png and .gpl format):
http://
irrlichtproject.de/stellarpaint/stellarmode_gimp_tools.zip
Send your image in.png format and the organizers will take care
of converting it for the compo - or, if you prefer, use the
Python converter script in the archive (requires Pillow library)
to convert it into Stellarpaint format. Send your works to
1bitforum@posteo.net until1бth of September, 2018. No more than
2 works per author, no copyrighted material, and no conversions!

Utz also wrote about his music programming language (the chat 
started because of Listh language project, published in the
previous ACNews ):

Utz> 
I'm busy with re-designing MDAL(https://utz82.github.io/MDAL/).
The site doesn't explain it so well, but there are actually 3
things:
- MDMOD,an abstract, generic music markup language; 
- MDCONF,an XML-based data translation standard, which 
describes how to derive implementation-specific asm data output
from generic MDMODinput; 
- libmdal,which implements MDMOD and MDCONF support, and should 
(in the future) work as a back-end for PC-based chiptune
trackers.
Then there's also bintracker
(https://utz82.github.io/bintracker/) which is basically the 
test implementation.
In the past weeks I've carved out a working draft of the
next-gen MDCONFspecification (the first version having proved 
too limited, of course). Now I've started to re-implement
libmdal for the new spec (from scratch, so I can apply some of
the coding knowledge I've acquired in the past year).

Alone> 
I have one idea about a recursive music language (and tracker
interface) that can allow previously impossible tracking tricks.

Suppose you have an AY song with patterns consisting of tracks
for every channel. Every track can host many instruments (sound
effects) that play simultaneously, and the loudest one is heard
at every given time. A note in a track with intrument numberN
can be either:
-restart of sound effect N in the channel (staccato);
-change tone in sound effect N in the channel (legato).
Staccato is default, legato must be shown with some symbol. Or
the reverse. Or maybe legato will work if you don't write the
instrument number, the previous number will be used.

In AY songs, instruments consist of"sample" (list of tone
deltas, volume deltas and tone-envelope-noise masks for every
frame) and"ornament" (list of tone shifts in halftones for
every frame).
If we add volumes in"ornament", it will look like a track of
song, with legato notes. That's the first use of recursion.
Another use - you can write short melodic fragments (riffs) and
use them as one note.
(Song calls tracks, tracks call riffs, riffs call ornaments, all
with the same mechanism. The tone on the upper level indicates
tone shift for the riff used.)
A riff contains"time" column for every note: how many frames it
plays. There can betime=0 to start two notes simultaneously:
this way you can, for example, use a percussion riff in the same
channel as pad riff.
Sadly the"sample" information is played with another mechanism,
as a sound effect.
Sound effects are created with"staccato" notes and destroyed in
the end of an effect or with an"R" note.

Utz> 
The possibility of the recursive approach that you describe
crossed my mind before as well. The PhaseSqueekengine 
https://github.com/utz82/ZX-Spectrum-1-Bit-Routines/tree/master/
phasesqueek
partially applies this idea. As in, the"fx table"data layout 
is almost identical to the"pattern"data layout. It's not fully 
recursive though, because fx tables implement a"position jump",
which patterns don't implement, but use the same data element to
pass a pointer to an fx table. If these two could be made to
work logically the same, then it would be fully recursive. Then
same principles should be applied to the sequence.

Here's an example of a PhaseSqueekMDMODin the old standard: 
https://github.com/utz82/MDAL/blob/master/examples/
phasesqueek-demo.mdal

It's basically a text-based format similar to VTor 1tracker's 
format, except it stores only changes, prefixed with aCOMMAND=
(except in sequence where command is implicit). There is one
feature that will be dropped in the new standard, because it is
too difficult (for me at least) to maintain:
In MDALv1,block types are deduced automatically, eg. from this 
declaration in MDMOD:

:SEQUENCE
 intro
 ...
:intro
 FX=arp
 ...
:arp
 CMD=...

mdalcompiler can infer thatintrois a pattern andarpis an fx
table. In the newMDMODformat user will need to specify exactly 
the type of block, as well as a unique numerical identifier.
Also, new format uses brackets to delimit blocks.

:BLOCKTYPE:$01[:name] {
       COMMAND=value, CMD2=othervalue...
}

Also sequence will be a lot more verbose in the new standard.
But I think it's worth the gain in flexibility and type safety.

It's not my primary design goal to keep MDMOD format simple. It
should be "human-editable" (as in, "less annoying than typing
out .db statements"), but it's something you'd normally interact
with through a tracker or other GUI.

The good news is that the new MDCONFstandard will be able to 
fully support the recursive construct you described. There are 4
basic input data types:command, ifield, iblock,andigroup,
where command defines a single input parameter (think "note",
"volume", "name"...).ifieldsare derived fromcommands, iblocks
contain a variable number ofifields,and finallyigroups
containifields, iblocks,and otherigroups.And there are 
corresponding output data types, which may or may not follow the
recursion of the input structure. In fact, input structure is
entirely virtual in the new MDALstandard, ie. it doesn't need 
to follow the output structure at all. This will allow funky
stuff like abstracting away the input sequence, so in a tracker
user could switch between different modes:
- "matrix sequence" like inBeep Tracker
- "simple sequence" likeBeepolaor currentbintracker,and 
- "automatic" aka no sequence, like1tracker
all regardless of the actual sound engine implementation. With
this approach, back-end optimization should be easier as well.

One question I still haven't quite worked out is whether to
abstract away sequences as a separate data type, and instead
derive them from the usual(i/o)blocktypes. In theory this 
should work because it's possible to define a sequence structure
with the same type of rules that apply to patterns or any sort
of sequential order. The problem is that it wouldn't work if the
output data needs to contain a list of elements (say, a list of
samples used in a module, to be used as a lookup table or
whatever). For this there is an alternative otype calledolist.
I feel that if I merge osequence intooblock,I should also get 
rid ofolist.There's also a dedicated binary output type, 
obitfield.Maybe it's possible to derive all otypes from the
obitfieldtype but I don't have a clear picture on that yet.

Alone> 
How do you debug music in text format? When I wrote music for
"Sewerage" game in assembly, I had to play it every time from 
the beginning after a change...

Utz> 
Same with current libmdal(except there are block comments so 
you can quickly comment out parts of the sequence etc). The new
libmdal will hopefully work in realtime, so that any change to
MDMODinput would automatically update the output structure 
(which in turn can dump binary and asm output for the various
required cases - play pattern/current pos/from start etc). Also,
new libmdalshould integrate a script language of sorts, for 
"live" interaction as well as on-the-fly reconfiguration.
Haven't worked out the details of that yet, but that's why I'm
looking atSchemeat the moment. 

Alone> 
I have thought again a lot and I understood that a recursive
format doesn't need samples :) Except for a few standard sounds
in the riff field. (Again, example for AY.)
That's because an ornament is generally used with one given
sample.
The hierarchy is as follows:order -> tracks (might be two or
more in one channel at a time, with independent volumes) ->
riffs ->instruments(ornaments) -> samples -> standard sounds. 
All of them will be referred as riffs.

- note with"T" must switch on tone and set tone frequency
(relative to riff frequency) - in current subchannel
- note with"t" must switch on tone and set tone frequency
(absolute) - in current subchannel
- note with"N" must switch on noise and set noise frequency -
in current subchannel
- note with"n" must set global noise offset
- note with"E","C","1" must retrigger envelope with given
type - in current subchannel
- note with user defined riff (I like your idea with named
tracks) creates and runs that riff at once (the riff is
destroyed when it ends).
- note with volume switches off envelope and sets volume
(relative to riff volume) in current subchannel.

By default, the current frame of current subchannel (linked to
current riff) is empty, only the volume/envelope persists from
the previous frame (empty on the first frame of the riff).
So you can overlayT+N+E in any combination, using zero speed.

Subchannels are rendered by replayer to one channel, judging
from their relative volume (the loudest one is heard in any
given moment).

Utz> 
For data format, the most consequential decision would be
whether to use to use an abstract base format (which compiles to
actual player data format, like in most PC based trackers), or
"direct-to-memory" approach like most native trackers. I think
an abstract base format would be most desirable for this kind of
thing, as it can solve many of the associated problems. So it
might be worth exploring this option even if we're thinking
about a native tracker. On the other hand, a direct-to-memory
approach could make for a very interesting and experimental
interface. I mean the concept of trackers is 30 years old and
there were very few new ideas since then. It could be very
interesting to challenge those traditional concepts and try to
approach it from a new and unconventional angle, without
preconceptions. As far as I understand, defMONonC64went that 
route to some extend, though I don't understand it well enough
to make an informed comment about it. But it's something worth
looking at I think.

For example, one notion that can be challenged is the idea that
TNEmust be tied to note. Why not separate them? Of course this
can be a bit weird in context of AY, because of different
frequency dividers for tone/buzz/noise. However, all noise and
buzzer dividers are valid (if non-sensical) note dividers, so
why not give the user the chance to shoot himself in the foot? I
believe nqwould find that very amusing :D Or one could have 
three columns of dividers, one for note, buzz, and noise, each;
and have the player pick what it needs. With an abstract base
format, selection could even be done at compile time, so the
player doesn't have to do the heavy lifting. Same goes for stuff
like multichan riffs and cycled samples. Abstract base format
with aggressive optimization at compile time can solve many of
these problems. The question is of course if it would be viable,
ie. if compiled data is reasonably small. Common sense would
dictate that compiled data could be huge even with heavy
optimizations, but I think it's something that should be
investigated and tried out before ruling it out :)

Alone> 
How to create multichannel riffs/samples? We can't have too many
standard sounds!

Utz> 
Regarding standard sounds, ideally there should be none at all.
They can be implemented as "patches" or "macros" that can be
stored/loaded from disk as needed.

Regarding multichannel riffs, with an abstract base format one
could use "virtual" order lists, which are resolved at compile
time.

Alone> 
How to make cycled samples, avoiding infinite spawning of riffs
when we forget to shut them up?

Utz> 
Generally, I'd say cycled samples should be treated the same as
loops in order. In MDAL v2the intended route is to define two 
commands, a"label"type command, which can be used to tag 
locations within an element (order/pattern/sample/whatever), and
a"reference"type command which holds a reference to a label 
(or another element). Orders are implemented as generic blocks
composed of reference commands now ;)

Alone> 
How to display and edit such a tree-like structure?

Utz> 
As I said, I very much hope that MDAL(and by extension, 
bintracker) will be able to support such a structure, 
regardless of the details. If it doesn't, I'd actually be
willing to go through the trouble to make it work. The one thing
I don't have at this point is AY emulation for bintracker.
Emulators in bintracker have some very specific requirements,
namelya)they must be true free software (as in, noGPL) and 
b)they must be able to do a range of callbacks on certain
breakpoints, which rules out stuff like Game Music Emu.Haven't 
worked out the API details yet, so no need to think about it
further right now.

In any case MDALstrongly promotes the "don't bother the user 
with implementation details" approach. The user interface could
very well use traditional terminology, without making the
recursive structure explicit.

Ultimately, the answer to this question again very much depends
on what kind of editor is to be used. If it's a cross-dev tool,
I'd hide the details, abstract interface as much as possible
from the implementation, and just do aggressive optimization in
the backend. If we're talking about a native ZX tool, then it
might make sense to do exactly the opposite and completely
expose the implementation, so users know how to optimize for
size etc, and experiment with the recursive structure.

A bit more practically speaking, with a PC tracker there's
actually no problem, as there's enough screen space to display
the tree structure in full by just nesting elements. For a
native tracker on the other hand, one could use the trick I use
in bintracker:pressingEnteron a field that references another 
element will bring up that element. One could additionally
display a list of existing instances of that element type, but
it's not strictly necessary, ie. referencing a non-existant
instance may simply create a new, empty one, and
unused/duplicate instances can be thrown out by optimizer.

One could also think about a hybrid application, ie. native
tracker but making use of powerful peripherals. However, there's
a practical problem here:
In the West, most common such devices are based on ESXDOS,
whereas in the East, most widely used one is TR-DOS,I believe. 
ESXDOShas some TR-DOS emulation, but it's incomplete. For 
example I can run Beep Tracker,but not ALASM. 

In other news, I've published some draft specifications for
MDAL v2. 

https://github.com/utz82/MDAL/wiki/
MDCONF-Standard-Version-2-Specification-Draft

https://github.com/utz82/MDAL/wiki/
MDMOD-Standard-Version-2-Specification-Draft

I consider MDMODspecification to be relatively mature, while 
MDCONFwill probably still undergo various changes. 

...

Latest update on new libmdal:
Progress has been even slower than expected. Clearly
underestimated the complexity of the task. But the lib is now
able to parse MDMODtext into an internal representation of 
the module (based on MDCONFspecifications), and produce valid 
MDMODoutput from it again. Next step is to get it to generate 
asm output. Don't have a clear picture yet on how to go about,
but in principle I'd want some kind of internal intermediate
format, from which asm and binary output can be quickly
generated. Well, we'll see.

                             * * *

Motivated by this, I decided to make my Listh language at least
runnable (press"5" ). Maybe some day it grows usable :)