Mercurial > hg > vamp-plugin-sdk
diff vamp-sdk/doc-overview @ 54:933fee59d33a
* doc updates
author | cannam |
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date | Fri, 30 Mar 2007 17:14:16 +0000 |
parents | |
children | 0f8524203677 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/vamp-sdk/doc-overview Fri Mar 30 17:14:16 2007 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ + +/** \mainpage Vamp Plugin SDK + +\section about About Vamp + +Vamp is an API for C and C++ plugins that process sampled audio data +to produce descriptive output (measurements or semantic observations). +Find more information at http://www.vamp-plugins.org/ . + +Although the official API for Vamp plugins is defined in C for maximum +binary compatibility, we strongly recommend using the provided C++ +classes in the SDK to implement your own plugins and hosts. + +\section plugins For Plugins + +Plugins should subclass Vamp::Plugin, and then use a +Vamp::PluginAdapter to expose the correct C API for the plugin. Read +the documentation for Vamp::PluginBase and Vamp::Plugin before +starting. + +Plugins should be compiled and linked into dynamic libraries using the +usual convention for your platform, and should link (preferably +statically) with -lvamp-sdk. Any number of plugins can reside in a +single dynamic library. See plugins.cpp in the example plugins +directory for the sort of code that will need to accompany your plugin +class or classes, to make it possible for a host to look up your +plugins properly. + +The following example plugins are provided: + + - ZeroCrossing calculates the positions and density of zero-crossing + points in an audio waveform. + + - SpectralCentroid calculates the centre of gravity of the frequency + domain representation of each block of audio. + + - AmplitudeFollower is an implementation of SuperCollider's + amplitude-follower algorithm as a simple Vamp plugin. + + - PercussionOnsetDetector estimates the locations of percussive + onsets using a simple method described in "Drum Source Separation + using Percussive Feature Detection and Spectral Modulation" by Dan + Barry, Derry Fitzgerald, Eugene Coyle and Bob Lawlor, ISSC 2005. + +\section hosts For Hosts + +Hosts will usually want to use a Vamp::PluginHostAdapter to convert +each plugin's exposed C API back into a useful Vamp::Plugin object. + +Hosts should link with -lvamp-hostsdk. + +The Vamp API does not officially specify how to load plugin libraries +or where to find them. However, the SDK does include a function +(Vamp::PluginHostAdapter::getPluginPath()) that returns a recommended +directory search path that hosts may use for plugin libraries. + +Our suggestion for a host is to search each directory in this path for +.DLL (on Windows), .so (on Linux, Solaris, BSD etc) or .dylib (on +OS/X) files, then to load each one and perform a dynamic name lookup +on the vampGetPluginDescriptor function to enumerate the plugins in +the library. The example host has some code that may help, but this +operation will necessarily be system-dependent. + +Vamp also has an informal convention for sorting plugins into +functional categories. In addition to the library file itself, a +plugin library may install a category file with the same name as the +library but .cat extension. The existence and format of this file are +not specified by the Vamp API, but by convention the file may contain +lines of the format + +\code +vamp:pluginlibrary:pluginname::General Category > Specific Category +\endcode + +which a host may read and use to assign plugins a location within a +category tree for display to the user. The expectation is that +advanced users may also choose to set up their own preferred category +trees, which is why this information is not queried as part of the +Vamp API itself. + +There is an example host in the "host" directory from +which code may be drawn. + +\section license License + +This plugin SDK is freely redistributable under a "new-style BSD" +licence. See the file COPYING for more details. In short, you may +modify and redistribute the SDK and example plugins within any +commercial or non-commercial, proprietary or open-source plugin or +application under almost any conditions, with no obligation to provide +source code, provided you retain the original copyright note. + + +*/