cannam@108: 
cannam@108: The Vamp Plugin SDK -- Platform Notes for Visual C++ on Windows
cannam@108: ===============================================================
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Visual C++ Project Files
cannam@108: ------------------------
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Three Visual C++ project files are included with the SDK:
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:  - build/VampPluginSDK.vcproj
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:    This builds the plugin SDK into a single static library, but does
cannam@108:    not build the example plugins, the host SDK, or the host.  (We
cannam@108:    recommend using static linkage for the SDK rather than distributing
cannam@108:    it as a DLL, particularly when building plugins.)
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:  - build/VampHostSDK.vcproj
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:    This builds the host SDK into a single static library, but does not
cannam@108:    build the plugin SDK, example plugins, or host.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:  - build/VampExamplePlugins.vcproj
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:    This builds the example plugins DLL, but does not build the plugin
cannam@108:    or host SDKs or the host.  You don't need to build the plugin SDK
cannam@108:    before this, because this project simply includes the plugin SDK
cannam@108:    files rather than using the library.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Of course, when using Visual Studio or another IDE to build a plugin
cannam@108: or host using the SDK, you may simply add the .h and .cpp files in the
cannam@108: vamp-sdk or vamp-hostsdk directories to your existing project.  This
cannam@108: is the approach taken in the VampExamplePlugins project.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: As the command-line host has additional library dependencies (namely
cannam@108: libsndfile), no pre-packaged project is included to build it.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Installing the Example Plugins
cannam@108: ------------------------------
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: To install the example plugins so you can load them in Vamp hosts,
cannam@108: copy the files
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:    build\release\vamp-example-plugins.dll
cannam@108: and
cannam@108:    examples\vamp-example-plugins.cat
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: to
cannam@108: 
cannam@108:    C:\Program Files\Vamp Plugins
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Plugin Linkage
cannam@108: --------------
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Vamp plugins are distributed as dynamic libraries (DLLs).  A properly
cannam@108: packaged Vamp plugin DLL should export exactly one public symbol,
cannam@108: namely the Vamp API entry point vampGetPluginDescriptor.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: One nice tidy way to achieve this with Visual Studio is to add the
cannam@108: linker option /EXPORT:vampGetPluginDescriptor to your project.  (All
cannam@108: of the other symbols will be properly hidden, because that is the
cannam@108: default for the Visual Studio linker.)  The included example plugins
cannam@108: project in build/VampExamplePlugins.vcproj does this.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Alternatively, you may modify vamp/vamp.h to add the
cannam@108: __declspec(dllexport) attribute to the vampGetPluginDescriptor
cannam@108: declaration.  This is not present by default, because it isn't
cannam@108: portable and, as we only want one symbol exported, the above linker
cannam@108: option works equally well without code changes.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: (If you don't take at least one of these actions, your plugin library
cannam@108: simply will not load in any host.)
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Using MinGW/Cygwin
cannam@108: ------------------
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Refer to README.linux for build instructions using the GNU toolchain.
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: Test Your Plugins
cannam@108: -----------------
cannam@108: 
cannam@108: The Vamp Plugin Tester is a vital utility which you can use to test
cannam@108: your plugins for common problems.  It can help you if you're having
cannam@108: problems getting your plugin to work at all, and you're strongly
cannam@108: advised to use it before you release anything.  Download it from the
cannam@108: Vamp plugins site now!
cannam@108: