4 ms·

Scala: A software tool for microtonic, macrotonic and other alternative tunings

56 points by thanatropism 7y ago

nyokodo 7y ago
Is it also binary incompatible between minor versions and have a standard library full of abandoned PhD projects?
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
donut 7y ago
> Scala is written in the programming language Ada. Huh!
manojlds 7y ago
I mostly don't care about naming clashes, but this is asinine. Edit - looks like this is as old as Scala the programming language.
tprice7 7y ago
edit: weirdly the parent comment of my comment has disappeared and now my comment has been moved to a top level comment and appears to be apropos of nothing. Oh well. I'm pretty sure this predated the programming language. I can't find a source on when Scala (the microtuning one) first appeared but it existed when I first got into this stuff around 2004, and I didn't have the impression it was new at the time.
- manojlds 7y ago
  Ok, the earliest instance of that URL I can see on Archive.org is 2007, so it's pretty old and close to age of Scala programming language or possibly older.
  - tprice7 7y ago
    Yeah I checked that too. It's puzzling as I am 100% certain it's older than 2007.
    - manojlds 7y ago
      Could be, might have been hosted elsewhere or not even crawled etc.
- desdiv 7y ago
  Google says this Scala tuning software page dates from 2001[0]. The page's own copyright date says "2003-2015". Scala the programming language had its first public release on 2004-01-20[1]. [0] http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/examples.html http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/examples.html [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(programming_language)
- cannam 7y ago
  Scala was familiar enough by 2003 that I referred to it as a known utility (rather than a new thing) in a post to the mailing list for a different project in June that year. It's obviously a niche application, but I suppose within that niche it's probably still more familiar than the language, if not as familiar as the opera house. From my perspective as a Linux user and developer, one problem with it was the non-commercial-only licence which, while obviously reasonable, prevented it from being packaged in many Linux distributions. If it wasn't for that, your "apt-get install scala" might well be installing this application rather than the programming language.
  - walkingolof 7y ago
    There are many things name `Scala`, for example, the productivity suite for the Amiga. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(company)
    - flurdy 7y ago
      Not to forget the Milan opera house [1]. Or my favourite restaurant in Ibiza. [2][3] Though I did grow up with Scala the company on my tv as the local cable tv company was powered by it. Now I work most of the time using Scala the programming language. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala [2] http://la-scala.com http://la-scala.com [3] https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g664638-d1001540-Reviews-La_Scala-Ibiza_Town_Ibiza_Balearic_Islands.html https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g664638-d100...
tprice7 7y ago
Also see Sevish's scale workshop: https://sevish.com/scaleworkshop/ https://sevish.com/scaleworkshop/ It has the most useful bits of functionality of Scala, with a simpler UI, and as a web rather than desktop application.
enriquto 7y ago
It would be very useful if there were compiled binaries for android phones, which many people use nowadays to tune their instruments.
AzzieElbab 7y ago
All things scala are music to my ears
mastazi 7y ago
The list of export formats is really impressive. It's interesting to note that Hauptwerk (a pipe organ software emulator) is among the supported targets; some early organs used historical temperaments which sound different compared to equal temperament and some of those had split keys [1][2]. [1] This is an example of meantone organ with split sharps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GhAuZH6phs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GhAuZH6phs [2] This is an explanation of Meantone and split keys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxC-Egr73w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxC-Egr73w

56 points by thanatropism 7y ago

nyokodo 7y ago

Is it also binary incompatible between minor versions and have a standard library full of abandoned PhD projects?

dang 7y ago
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

donut 7y ago

> Scala is written in the programming language Ada. Huh!

manojlds 7y ago

I mostly don't care about naming clashes, but this is asinine. Edit - looks like this is as old as Scala the programming language.

tprice7 7y ago

edit: weirdly the parent comment of my comment has disappeared and now my comment has been moved to a top level comment and appears to be apropos of nothing. Oh well. I'm pretty sure this predated the programming language. I can't find a source on when Scala (the microtuning one) first appeared but it existed when I first got into this stuff around 2004, and I didn't have the impression it was new at the time.

manojlds 7y ago
Ok, the earliest instance of that URL I can see on Archive.org is 2007, so it's pretty old and close to age of Scala programming language or possibly older.
- tprice7 7y ago
  Yeah I checked that too. It's puzzling as I am 100% certain it's older than 2007.
  - manojlds 7y ago
    Could be, might have been hosted elsewhere or not even crawled etc.
desdiv 7y ago
Google says this Scala tuning software page dates from 2001[0]. The page's own copyright date says "2003-2015". Scala the programming language had its first public release on 2004-01-20[1]. [0] http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/examples.html http://www.huygens-fokker.org/scala/examples.html [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(programming_language)
cannam 7y ago
Scala was familiar enough by 2003 that I referred to it as a known utility (rather than a new thing) in a post to the mailing list for a different project in June that year. It's obviously a niche application, but I suppose within that niche it's probably still more familiar than the language, if not as familiar as the opera house. From my perspective as a Linux user and developer, one problem with it was the non-commercial-only licence which, while obviously reasonable, prevented it from being packaged in many Linux distributions. If it wasn't for that, your "apt-get install scala" might well be installing this application rather than the programming language.
- walkingolof 7y ago
  There are many things name `Scala`, for example, the productivity suite for the Amiga. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scala_(company)
  - flurdy 7y ago
    Not to forget the Milan opera house [1]. Or my favourite restaurant in Ibiza. [2][3] Though I did grow up with Scala the company on my tv as the local cable tv company was powered by it. Now I work most of the time using Scala the programming language. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Scala [2] http://la-scala.com http://la-scala.com [3] https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g664638-d1001540-Reviews-La_Scala-Ibiza_Town_Ibiza_Balearic_Islands.html https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g664638-d100...

tprice7 7y ago

Also see Sevish's scale workshop: https://sevish.com/scaleworkshop/ https://sevish.com/scaleworkshop/ It has the most useful bits of functionality of Scala, with a simpler UI, and as a web rather than desktop application.

enriquto 7y ago

It would be very useful if there were compiled binaries for android phones, which many people use nowadays to tune their instruments.

AzzieElbab 7y ago

All things scala are music to my ears

mastazi 7y ago

The list of export formats is really impressive. It's interesting to note that Hauptwerk (a pipe organ software emulator) is among the supported targets; some early organs used historical temperaments which sound different compared to equal temperament and some of those had split keys [1][2]. [1] This is an example of meantone organ with split sharps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GhAuZH6phs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GhAuZH6phs [2] This is an explanation of Meantone and split keys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxC-Egr73w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBxC-Egr73w