Chris@23: 
Chris@23: The Vamp Plugin SDK -- Platform Notes for OS/X
Chris@23: ==============================================
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Prerequisites
Chris@23: -------------
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: You must have Xcode installed, with the command-line build tools.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: (If you are using Xcode 4, you may have to go to Preferences ->
Chris@23: Downloads -> Components and install the Command Line Tools component.)
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: You must have libsndfile (http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/)
Chris@23: installed in order to build the command-line host successfully.  But
Chris@23: you do not need libsndfile if you only want to build plugins.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Building at the command line
Chris@23: ----------------------------
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: To build the SDK, example plugins, and command-line host:
Chris@23: 
Chris@23:  $ make -f build/Makefile.osx
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: To build only the SDK and example plugins (for example if you do not
Chris@23: have libsndfile installed):
Chris@23: 
Chris@23:  $ make -f build/Makefile.osx sdk examples
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: See the comments at the top of Makefile.osx for more information about
Chris@23: the libraries and other targets that are built in this way.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: If you are using an IDE such as Xcode, you may prefer to simply add
Chris@23: the vamp-sdk and src/vamp-sdk (for plugins) or vamp-hostsdk and
Chris@23: src/vamp-hostsdk (for hosts) directories to your existing project.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: If you are using OS/X 10.6 or older, use Makefile.osx.106 instead of
Chris@23: Makefile.osx.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Installing the Example Plugins
Chris@23: ------------------------------
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: To install the example plugins so you can load them in Vamp hosts,
Chris@23: copy the files
Chris@23: 
Chris@23:    examples/vamp-example-plugins.dylib
Chris@23: and
Chris@23:    examples/vamp-example-plugins.cat
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: to
Chris@23:    /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp/
Chris@23: or 
Chris@23:    $HOME/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Vamp/
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Plugin Linkage
Chris@23: --------------
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Vamp plugins are distributed as dynamic libraries (.dylib).  An OS/X
Chris@23: dynamic library has a formal installed name, which is recorded in the
Chris@23: library's header: you will need to ensure that this matches the
Chris@23: plugin's filename (e.g. vamp-example-plugins.dylib) by using the
Chris@23: -install_name <name> option at link time.  The Makefile.osx provided
Chris@23: with the SDK contains an example of this.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: A well-packaged Vamp plugin library should export exactly one public
Chris@23: symbol, namely the Vamp API entry point vampGetPluginDescriptor.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: The default for the OS/X linker is to export all of the symbols in the
Chris@23: library.  This will work (the host will be able to load the plugin),
Chris@23: but it unnecessarily pollutes the host's symbol namespace, it may
Chris@23: cause symbol collisions in some esoteric circumstances, and it
Chris@23: increases the amount of time the plugin takes to load.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: To improve this behaviour, you can instruct the linker to export only
Chris@23: the one required symbol using a symbols list file.  To do this, place
Chris@23: the single line
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: _vampGetPluginDescriptor
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: (with leading underscore) into a text file, and then use the
Chris@23: -exported_symbols_list option to the linker to tell it to refer to
Chris@23: this file.  All other symbols will then be properly hidden.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: The Makefile.osx included in this SDK uses this method to manage
Chris@23: symbol visibility for the included example plugins, using the file
Chris@23: build/vamp-plugin.list.  There are other methods that will work too,
Chris@23: but this one is simple and has the advantage of requiring no changes
Chris@23: to the code.
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: Test Your Plugins
Chris@23: -----------------
Chris@23: 
Chris@23: The Vamp Plugin Tester is a vital utility which you can use to test
Chris@23: your plugins for common problems.  It can help you if you're having
Chris@23: problems getting your plugin to work at all, and you're strongly
Chris@23: advised to use it before you release anything.  Download it from the
Chris@23: Vamp plugins site now!
Chris@23: