ob-sclang/README.org

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#+TITLE: ob-sclang
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#+STARTUP: showall
#+STARTUP: showstars
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** Why do I even?
[[https://orgmode.org/][Org-mode]] makes [[http://literateprogramming.com/][literate programming]] easy via [[https://orgmode.org/worg/library-of-babel.html][Library of Babel]]. Il simply allows to mix text with executable /code blocks/ (which can also be extracted (/tangled/) into separate, executable files. The beauty the Library of Babel implementation in org-mode lies in the fact that it supports many languages. I craved support for [[https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider][SuperCollider]] and craving became an itch when I needed to document a working pipeline alternating between executing sclang and shell scripts. I scratched an itch with this little module.
** How to install?
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First of all, you will need emacs and SuperCollider (with emacs support) installed. Modern emacsen (>25) and Spacemacs come with bundled org-mode. At this point I am the sole user of this plugin and have just written it so I am not itching yet for MELPA or inclusion in the official org-mode repositories, so installation is manual. You can either drop [[file:ob-sclang.el]] somewhere in your Emacs' path or add its containing directory to ~load-path~ in =.init= file:
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#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
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(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/ob-sclang/")
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#+END_SRC
You will also have to add it to =(org-babel-do-load-languages)=
#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
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(require 'ob-sclang)
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(org-babel-do-load-languages
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'org-babel-load-languages
'((sclang . t)))
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#+END_SRC
** And then?
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well, then you type a block like this one:
#+BEGIN_SRC org
,#+BEGIN_SRC sclang
"boo".postln;
,#+END_SRC
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#+END_SRC
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And after you hit /C-c C-c/ you should see the string appear in your =SCLang:PostBuffer*=
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*Note:*, that if you have not already started SuperCollider process, the plugin will do it for you as soon as you create a source block of type =sclang=.
*** Use of variables
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You can also include variables to be passed to you sclang code:
#+BEGIN_SRC org
,#+BEGIN_SRC sclang :var boo="hoo" :var pi=3.14159 :var year=2000 :var buf='foo
boo.postln;
pi.postln;
year.postln;
buf.postln;
,#+END_SRC
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#+END_SRC
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Will reformat your sclang body to:
#+BEGIN_SRC sclang
"hoo".postln;
3.141590.postln;
2000.postln;
"foo".asSymbol.postln;
#+END_SRC
Before passing it on to the sclang process.
The use of sclang's own global variables is persistent between code blocks so =~boo=
#+BEGIN_SRC org
,#+BEGIN_SRC sclang
~boo = "hoo";
,#+END_SRC
#+END_SRC
is accessible here:
#+BEGIN_SRC org
,#+BEGIN_SRC sclang
~boo.postln;
,#+END_SRC
#+END_SRC
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** Known issues
At this point, this plugin has a very crude functionality. It allows unidirectional control of SuperCollider process running inside Emacs. As such, here is a list of issues:
- sclang process has a tendency to replace Emacs frames with =Workspace= and =PostBuffer= when it lunches, therefore if have not already started sclang, your code block with start it for you, but your current buffer will loose focus.
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- The code you execute will not return anything back to the document you are working in (well, it just prints back all lines it executed so simply use =:results none= to limit the noise.
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I may raise the first point with the current sclang-mode maintainer...
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The last point is probably more problematic but it may be useful to get some datatypes from sclang. It merits some thought.
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Of course feel free to open questions, suggestions, discussions and even pull requests.