Replying to myself here, I discovered in the sc3-plugins installation
instructions
that sc3-plugins can be installed as quarks.
So I might be able to sum up:
Extensions are extensions to the language.
Plugins are extensions to the server.
Quarks are packages that can contain both.
Not all Extensions and/or Plugins have been packaged as Quarks.
Plugins must be compiled for your machine (OS, architecture, etc), both for scsynth and supernova. Extensions are text files and are much simpler to distribute as packages (quarks). In theory, a package manager could take care of everything, but maybe it’s just better to Keep It Simple.
Quarks are packages that can contain both.
It would be a bad idea. Quarks has no idea about binaries and would need to download everything. Also, git was not made to distribute binaries.
Plugins must be compiled for your machine (OS, architecture, etc), both for scsynth and supernova. Only then they are binary compatible. Extensions are text files and are much simpler to distribute as packages (quarks). In theory, a package manager could take care of everything, but maybe it’s just better to Keep It Simple.
Thanks Bernardo, so I assume that my above description is as close to
how things are layed out. I am still wondering it there are plugins
which are currently distributed as quarks already?
On my platform (Linux) compiling sc-plugins is a bit of a pita (at least
to me), lots of sources to pull in, many dependencies and instructions
to follow just to try out three classes, so I’d definitely benefit from
plugins being distributed as quark. But I understand it makes things
more complicated.
Just for the record, pure-data’s package manager is used to distribute
patches (as text files) and OS- and CPU-dependent binary libraries.
Maybe Debian is not the best option for audio?
In my experience from the last 20yrs it is a good distribution for
audio and has been earning me my money during that time.
But yes, distributions…
I am still wondering if the person having packaged SC3 for Debian
recently is here on this mailing list?