[announce] SuperCollider Version 3.11.1-rc1 now available for download

Development
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We are pleased to announce this release candidate of SuperCollider 3.11.1! Please note this is a release candidate meant for user testing, and not an official release. If no major issues are found in the release candidate, a proper release will be made in about two weeks.

The release is available on GitHub here: https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider/releases/tag/Version-3.11.1-rc1. Please give it a try, and report any bugs – especially bugs in things that used to work in 3.11.0 – at https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider/issues.

Notable improvements in this version include:

  • the IDE and sclang GUI components now have better support on high-resolution displays on Windows (PR 4850)
  • scsynth now supports non-ASCII device names on Windows (PR 4479)
  • Cmd-W now closes GUI windows again on macOS (PR 4821)
  • passing a nil spec to NamedControl no longer overwrites a spec in SynthDef metadata (PR 4817)
  • fixed a major cause of obscure and confusing failures in communication between IDE and sclang (PR 5015)

As always, see CHANGELOG.md with the release for complete changelog information.

SuperCollider is tested with:

  • Windows 10 (32- and 64-bit) and MSVC 2017
  • macOS 10.13 and Xcode 9.4
  • Ubuntu 14.04 and gcc 4.9

SuperCollider is known to support these platforms:

  • Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10
  • macOS 10.13-10.15
  • Ubuntu 14.04-18.04
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Just a quick report – I just tried my full live coding system in Windows (including private code that I hadn’t ported before) – I needed some minor adjustments but nothing outrageous, and then I could run it for an hour without any catastrophic failures. I think this sets a new bar for Windows compatibility – my live coding UI is doing some fun things with key actions and (after tweaking a couple of keycodes) it generally worked fine. I’m quite pleased.

I did note that rhythm seemed a bit “loose” at times. I’m not sure why, and it’s acceptable for ambient music, but it was curious. Probably not a release-specific issue though.

Great work on this release!

hjh

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I don’t know why the help browser section is never addressed. The shift-return still doesn’t work.

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Here’s a list of all issues (open and closed) containing the words “help browser”: Issues · supercollider/supercollider · GitHub

Certainly isn’t accurate to say that nothing has ever been addressed in the help browser. For example, https://github.com/supercollider/supercollider/issues/4849 was fixed in this release.

Could you say more about the specific actions in the help browser that aren’t working for you? And the result (i.e., what you expected to happen, vs what did happen)? And which OS? That would be something we can troubleshoot. (As it stands now, your comment registers frustration but it contains no information to help actually resolve any problems.)

hjh

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shift-return still doesn’t work, I said that already.

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You are on windows. That is execute code on mac

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I had to rename my IDE configuration file to see the default behavior to understand, but now I see it.

So, to clarify for other developers: New users come to SC, open the Getting Started tutorial, read “To execute it, simply click to place the cursor somewhere on the same line as the code and then press Shift-Enter (Shift-Return on macOS). Try this now” – which they do, and nothing happens.

It does happen with ctrl-return or cmd-return… but you have to read a bit further for that.

So then I thought, maybe shift-return is outdated… but no, with a brand new IDE config file (all default settings), shift-return is current and works in a code document – just not in the help browser. (sslew might be asking how I wouldn’t be aware of that. I changed the key bindings in my environment – haven’t used shift-return in years. Apologies for that bit of confusion.)

At one time, it was intended that the same code-execution key bindings should be used throughout the IDE (including help browser – Cmd-Return / Shift-Return inconsistency in IDE and lang. · Issue #540 · supercollider/supercollider · GitHub, “The shortcuts for evaluation are equal in the help browser and code editor. When you change the shortcut in the configuration dialog, it will be changed throughout the IDE”).

That was 8 years ago. Since then, Qt forced a rewrite of some of the help browser code. Wouldn’t surprise me if something drifted.

FWIW, help browser code execution has been a very tricky part of the code to maintain. It’s well understood that it’s a sensitive area for users (especially, as I just noted, when the behavior doesn’t match the documentation); it’s just that it’s harder than you think, and relatively fragile with respect to Qt updates. (It was all working with an older Qt; then Qt stopped supporting that version, and the new version deprecated the web view we had been using, requiring a fairly intensive rewrite on our side and this rewrite did break a few things. So, in answer to the original comment, “I don’t know why the help browser section is never addressed,” there has been a considerable amount of work involved in that upgrade just to keep it at this level, work which may seem to be invisible.)

hjh

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What has kept you with SC for so long? Youve been around for at least 20 years. Is it composition? Or sound? Or did you get into the rabbit hole of coding for coding sake? Do you code for a living? Just curious about you

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Replied in a new thread – better to reserve this thread for comments about the release. It’s a good topic and deserves its own thread!

hjh

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Hey @sslew! Totally understand that this would be an annoying bug to encounter. We fixed about 50 bugs for this release but not this one. We can prioritize it for the next release!

Just a reminder, SuperCollider is a 100% volunteer effort, and anyone is free to contribute, so if you see something you don’t like please let us know on GitHub or better yet submit a patch for it if you have the time and know-how!

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Im an idiot. I cant help, sorry