Boodler: Installation

Boodler uses the standard Python distutils system for building and installation.

Prerequisites

Boodler is written in Python; you must have a Python interpreter installed on your system in order to run it. (Python version 2.3.5 or later is recommended. No, it doesn't work in Python3K.)

Boodler can generate audio output to several destinations, each of which is defined by a driver module:

The contents of the archive

If you list the source directory, you will see the following arrangement:
./setup.py
A script which compiles and installs Boodler on your machine.
./script/boodler.py
The Boodler program itself. This Python script starts up the Boodler engine.
./script/boomsg.py
A simple script for sending network events to Boodler.
./src/boodle/*.py
The boodle Python package. This contains several Python modules which are used by Boodler.
./src/cboodle/*.c
The C source for the boodle.cboodle module. This module performs the resampling, linear interpolation, and mixing operations which are at the heart of Boodler. It is written in C for efficiency.
./effects/*.py
The sound effects. Each Python module in this directory contains one or more Agent classes; each Agent class creates and controls an individual soundscape. When you start up Boodler, you select an Agent to run. (Note that this is a directory full of Python modules, but it is not a true Python package -- it lacks an __init__.py module.)
./doc/*.html
This documentation.
You will also need the Boodler sound library, which is available as a separate download (boodler-snd.tar.gz).

Setting up your environment

Download and uncompress the source archive and the sound library. (For example's sake, let us say that these are in /home/zarf/src/boodler and /home/zarf/lib/boodler-snd respectively.)

Boodler requires two environment variables to be set:

BOODLER_SOUND_PATH
The directory containing the Boodler sound library. (/home/zarf/lib/boodler-snd, for example.)
BOODLER_EFFECTS_PATH
The directory containing the Boodler sound effect modules. (/home/zarf/src/boodler/effects, for example.)
Either of these variables can also be given as a colon-separated list of directories, if you want to search in several places for either sounds or sound effects.

You may also want to make sure that Python's script directory is in your PATH. On most Unix systems, this will be /usr/local/bin. However, on MacOSX, it is the (somewhat unwieldy) /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin.

Building Boodler

  1. Type python setup.py build.

    This tries to figure out the configuration of your system, and compiles the Boodler modules which can be compiled.

  2. Type sudo python setup.py install.

    This installs Boodler in the system's Python directory. The sudo command will ask you for your password, which the setup script needs to write to a system directory. If you want to install to a different directory, you could instead type:

    python setup.py install --prefix directory

Testing Boodler out

Try this command:

boodler.py play.OneSound pure/stereotest.aiff

You should hear a seven-note series of test tones -- first alternating between left and right channels, and then playing in both.

You can now begin using Boodler.

If it doesn't work


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