adamjking

Good news for Linux users, I haven't gotten around to upgrading my Kernel/ALSA drivers but decided to give a new-ish Ubuntu LiveCD a go... MIOS Studio is working with Linux works when Java is installed :) All seemed to be working fine, however it has alerted me to one bug - expect a new minor release in a day or so. Gotta stop using commas to delimit values... who would have thought someone would use a comma in the MIDI Port name?

Thought so, judging by the error message. Not sure how the mac sets up preferences, classpaths, etc., but maybe if you put the full path to the Java 1.5 executable you can make sure you are running on 1.5 eg: path_to_java_1.5_executable/java -jar path_to_jar_file/MIOSStudio_beta4_1.jar

Hi Rowan, Unfortunately it doesn't mean much top me - if there are any other mac users perhaps they can give it a shot? What happens when you type in the command prompt: java -version - Adam

Hi Rowan, Sorry, I'm not much help with a Mac. Is there a command prompt/shell on OS-X? You just need to open it up and put in the command: java -jar path_to_jar_file/MIOSStudio_beta4_1.jar Any errors that are thrown should be printed in the command window. Does the beta4_1 work in conjunction with PlumStone, or only when you remove it? - Adam

Hi Rowan I've just recompiled, targetting specifically for 1.5 - I assume that's what they mean by "explicitly request version 1.5". Can you try and download http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/mios_studio/MIOSStudio_beta4_1.jar and see if it makes a difference? Cheers, - Adam

Hi Rowan, Can you provide a stack trace or printout of any errors you get when running MIOS Studio? Cheers, - Adam

Hi All, New features include: Documentation browser built-in to MIOS Studio (same documentation is available online) Ability to setup buttons to call external commands (Mobieus, now you can call MPASMWIN from within MIOS Studio ;D) More improvements to the MIDI Keyboard Controller Various bug fixes and GUI clean-ups A TODO list has been added to the MIOS Studio page (http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/mios_studio/), if anyone has suggestions or feature requests I will add them to the ever-expanding list. Smash, did Tiger end up shipping with Java 1.5? I don't think it did, any news of when it wuill be available?

Hi Gonzo, Your offer is very tempting, but between my own midibox projects (3 in various stages of completion), MIOSStudio, work and school I just don't have the time at the moment. You can order kits from SmashTV's website which has basically everything you'll need, just a matter of soldering the parts to the boards. - Adam

Hi All, Still not looking good for Mac users, Bob (creater of Plumstone) had this to say: So for the time being, it looks like *maybe* only support for Java 1.5 - which at the moment is only being planned for Tiger. Java 1.5 is currently only available for developers so I have no idea how well it works. I'll do my best to make MIOSStudio as cross-platform as possible, but when it comes to Java on anything prior to Tiger, it looks like it'll depend on whether Apple wants to sell more OS X upgrades or truly attract Java developers.

Hi Gonzo, woo-hoo... another Melbournite on the forum to join me and Wilba. I agree with uclaros, we were all DIY newbies at one stage. When I started, I hardly knew anything about electronics or MIDI either - now I'm making all my boards from scratch and writing MIOSStudio. I say go for it, a few trips to Jaycar or ordering online and you will have everything you need, and you've got help close by if you run into any trouble. Cheers, - Adam

Thanks Smash, Well, looking at the stack trace it doesn't look like good news for mac users. The method that is being called, getReceivers(), is part of the standard Java1.5 API's - it doesn't look like Plumstone provides this method. I will try and find out some more info on Plumstone and get back to you. In the mean time, I've made a few small improvements/bugfixes and have released a beta3 (http://69.56.171.55/~midibox/mios_studio/MIOSStudio_beta3.jar) version. Main fixes/improvements have been in the PianoController. - Adam

Yes, I don't understand it either. I was looking to buy one, as the Apple site says: That'd be perfect for me, I could have a mini sitting next to my dual boot Windows/Linux PC. But $800 just for a testbed is too much. And if I wanted to use it as an everyday workstation, I'd want the 80G HD, 1G RAM and DVD-RW... the price skyrockets to $AU 1,624.01! If Apple were really serious about attracting developers, they'd offer a bare-bones motherboard/processor/OS-X system, but that's another story. You need to use the command java -jar MIOSStudio_beta2.jar on the command line. If you can get it working and provide some stack traces with PlumStone, that'd be a better place to start. I know the PlumStone developer form the JavaSound mailing-list so should be able to track down the problems without having a mac in front of me. Have you, or anyone else, tried it on Linux yet? I'll upgrade to Fedora Core 3 when I have some spare time, just wondering if anyone has had any luck with it? Cheers, - Adam

I guess it is pretty hard to write a pure java app and expect it to act exactly like a mac application, even on Windows Java apps aren't quite right. Without using a GUI toolkit like SWT, the differences with Swing are enough to be able to tell the difference. I could imagine the frustrated mac user trying to get Java to work on anything but the very latest OS update, yet a Windows user could walk accross the room and fire up the same application in Windows 98! But I'd like to at least get it to work, UI nicities can be fixed later. If you run MIOS Studio from a command line, it should spit out a stack trace when an exception occurs. If you could send me this information I might be able to track down the problem. I thought that I'd buy a mini myself when they were first announced, but at $AU 800 for the base model (40G hard drive, 256MB RAM) it just isn't looking like the 'affordable mac' that Apple promised :( When testing, if you can send any stack traces, that be great. I'll have a look at PlumStone, see what I can find out. Cheers, - Adam

Wouldn't be cross-platform then ;)

Indeed. I tried this myself by running MIOS Studio on a Windows PC with Java 1.4.2 and the same thing happens: it appears to work until you try and access the MIDI hardware. MIDI and sound support have been much improved for 1.5 so that is why we made it the minimum requirement. This might not be so good for Apple users. From the apple site (http://developer.apple.com/java/faq/): So it looks like it might not be available for anything prior to Tiger. I believe Apple makes users pay for OS upgrades, so it is kind of ironic that they try and sell themselves to developers as a good platform for Java. Not being a mac user, I don't know how well plumstone works, but if this is a workable solution it would be preferrable to use plumstone + MIOS Studio instead of having a mac specific release. However, I'm pretty sure there are other Java5 specific API method calls as well in MIOS Studio, so 1.5 might still be required. Do mac users generally upgrade to the latest and greatest OS release? If not, maybe it's time to petition Apple (or Sun??) to make 1.5 available for earlier platforms! Of course, if someone wants to buy me a mac, I'll be more than happy to test the code and make changes myself ;) - Adam

Hi Smash, That's funny, I thought it wouldn't work with Java 1.4.1. The JAR file was compiled with 1.5 and there are at least a few API methods that only exist in 1.5, very strange. If you could let me know how the MIDI tests go that'd be great. Regarding the UI issues, I've notcied similar problems with window redrawing when running Java apps on X Windows (Linux) - I'll have to look further into this. I'll fix the TX issue for the next beta release. If you've got some time, can you send me a couple of screenshots of MIOS Studio with the Mac look and feel? Cheers, - Adam

I'll second that. Coming from a software background, it is refreshing to have a forum that doesn't break down into fights about operating systems, programming languages, etc. If I see another person substitute 'M$' for 'Microsoft' then I think I'll scream ::) Maybe hardware people are more practical?

Thanks for the tip Rene. Thorsten, it looks like this happens on Windows PC's that don't already have Java installed. JAR files are just glorified ZIP files, perhaps Windows renames them when the file extension is unknown.

Hi Daniel, To run MIOS Studio you will need the Java Runtime, at least version 1.5 installed. If you do not have it, you will need to go to the Sun site (http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp) first, download the JRE 5.0 file and install it. Once Java is installed, all you will need to do is download MIOS Studio and save it to your PC. In Windows, you should be able to just double click on the .jar file to open the program. To start from a command line (or setup a shortcut), you can use the command "java -jar path_to_.jar_file/MIOSStudio_beta1.jar" to open MIOS Studio. As an added utility, a cutdown version with just a keyboard controller, MIDI routing/filtering and keyboard zone mapping (in progress) is available. This can be started with the command "java -cp path_to_.jar_file/MIOSStudio_beta1.jar org.midibox.miosstudio.PianoControllerApp". So far the program has been tested with Windows 98, 2000 and XP. In theory, it should also run on Linux and Mac but the old saying proves true, "write once, debug everywhere". Linux MIDI support is supposed to be working, but I have had many problems - possibly due to an older kernel and ALSA drivers. If anyone can test on a newer version of Linux (with Java 1.5 installed) it would be greatly appreciated. At the moment, Java 1.5 is not officially available for the Mac, but if there are any Java/Mac developers in the community, please test it and report you findings. - Adam

MidiBox or not, I actually quite like the design. Am I the only one?

Can you explain what you mean by 'keyboard zone'? I'm sure it'd be pretty trivial to create a small app using Java, though Java 1.5 (with improved MIDI support) isn't available for the Mac yet I believe.

Got mine, cheers!

Hi All, Does anyone know if it is possible to get a socket that will fit the SMD chips, but have the 2.54mm leg spacing for soldering to the proto board? Cheers, Adam

Does anyone have a link to the negative voltage mod - the link from the old forum doesn't seem to work anymore? Cheers, Adam

Hi All, I'm planning on building a small MidiBox SID Step A with just single 8580, an LCD and 2 x DIN's. Is it best to use the C64 power supply, or can it be powered by a single transformer without overheating the 7805? Cheers, - Adam