Chris@12: 
Chris@12: The Vamp Plugin SDK -- Platform Notes for Visual C++ on Windows
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Chris@12: 
Chris@12: Visual C++ Project Files
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Chris@12: Three Visual C++ project files are included with the SDK:
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Chris@12:  - build/VampPluginSDK.vcproj
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Chris@12:    This builds the plugin SDK into a single static library, but does
Chris@12:    not build the example plugins, the host SDK, or the host.  (We
Chris@12:    recommend using static linkage for the SDK rather than distributing
Chris@12:    it as a DLL, particularly when building plugins.)
Chris@12: 
Chris@12:  - build/VampHostSDK.vcproj
Chris@12: 
Chris@12:    This builds the host SDK into a single static library, but does not
Chris@12:    build the plugin SDK, example plugins, or host.
Chris@12: 
Chris@12:  - build/VampExamplePlugins.vcproj
Chris@12: 
Chris@12:    This builds the example plugins DLL, but does not build the plugin
Chris@12:    or host SDKs or the host.  You don't need to build the plugin SDK
Chris@12:    before this, because this project simply includes the plugin SDK
Chris@12:    files rather than using the library.
Chris@12: 
Chris@12: Of course, when using Visual Studio or another IDE to build a plugin
Chris@12: or host using the SDK, you may simply add the .h and .cpp files in the
Chris@12: vamp-sdk or vamp-hostsdk directories to your existing project.  This
Chris@12: is the approach taken in the VampExamplePlugins project.
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Chris@12: As the command-line host has additional library dependencies (namely
Chris@12: libsndfile), no pre-packaged project is included to build it.
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Chris@12: Installing the Example Plugins
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Chris@12: To install the example plugins so you can load them in Vamp hosts,
Chris@12: copy the files
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Chris@12:    build\release\vamp-example-plugins.dll
Chris@12: and
Chris@12:    examples\vamp-example-plugins.cat
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Chris@12: to
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Chris@12:    C:\Program Files\Vamp Plugins
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Chris@12: Plugin Linkage
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Chris@12: Vamp plugins are distributed as dynamic libraries (DLLs).  A properly
Chris@12: packaged Vamp plugin DLL should export exactly one public symbol,
Chris@12: namely the Vamp API entry point vampGetPluginDescriptor.
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Chris@12: One nice tidy way to achieve this with Visual Studio is to add the
Chris@12: linker option /EXPORT:vampGetPluginDescriptor to your project.  (All
Chris@12: of the other symbols will be properly hidden, because that is the
Chris@12: default for the Visual Studio linker.)  The included example plugins
Chris@12: project in build/VampExamplePlugins.vcproj does this.
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Chris@12: Alternatively, you may modify vamp/vamp.h to add the
Chris@12: __declspec(dllexport) attribute to the vampGetPluginDescriptor
Chris@12: declaration.  This is not present by default, because it isn't
Chris@12: portable and, as we only want one symbol exported, the above linker
Chris@12: option works equally well without code changes.
Chris@12: 
Chris@12: (If you don't take at least one of these actions, your plugin library
Chris@12: simply will not load in any host.)
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Chris@12: Using MinGW/Cygwin
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Chris@12: Refer to README.linux for build instructions using the GNU toolchain.
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Chris@12: Test Your Plugins
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Chris@12: The Vamp Plugin Tester is a vital utility which you can use to test
Chris@12: your plugins for common problems.  It can help you if you're having
Chris@12: problems getting your plugin to work at all, and you're strongly
Chris@12: advised to use it before you release anything.  Download it from the
Chris@12: Vamp plugins site now!
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