Norns: scripting

[wolfgangschaltung]

Strange alert on Floor Division in norns’s Lua

I’m on norns 181008, when I use the Lua arithmetic expression for floor division, maiden shows an alert, but norns does the correct calcuation and returns the correct results:

When I remove the second / as requested by the alert, I get the standard division (which is not what I need):

I guess it is time for me to learn how to file a bug in git, no?

[Tyler]

I noticed this in one of my scripts as well, the code actually works error-free, but the alert doesn’t go away.

[ppqq]

this is an unfortunate limitation of the lua support baked into the editor framework we’re using in maiden, which doesn’t support lua 5.3 ops. (@tehn noticed this a while ago; tracked in: https://github.com/monome/maiden/issues/9.) . it’s an easy fix but should really happen upstream (or we should get off the web-worker parser and get on to something more robust – e.g., https://github.com/monome/maiden/issues/135).

[rryy]

Are there a best practices for using key 1 within scripts? I’ve been using long presses with it and as a modifier w/ encoders, but don’t want to accidentally override/mask system behavior for accessing the menu with the normal short press.

[tehn]

you actual can’t override the system behavior. it’s built-in to the scripting system, so you’re always safe to get back to the menu despite what your script does. what you’re doing is correct— KEY1 is really only good as a modifier or long-hold. keep in mind you can also track the release which can be useful.

[ypxkap]

following up on my earlier (in retrospect massively misguided) attempt to ‘fix’ maiden on ios to reclaim table space.

i have discovered the ‘obvious’ solution of coding with vim via ssh and bypassing the ios issues entirely. the vim learning curve for a novice is a bit ‘ehhhh’ but the space saving results are undeniable:

i am still trying to wrap my head around the workflow for this kind of coding and would appriciate any thoughts/links about how to approach doing norns scripts via ssh.

i can google vim shortcuts etc, but version control, testing/debugging, and general order of operations are a bit of a mystery since up until now i have just been mashing save/run in maiden and staring at the REPL for errors.

someday i will use norns to make a song. maybe a 2019 new years resolution.

[okyeron]

You might also take a look at nano instead of vim. It’s not as cryptic.

man nano from your command line

There’s probably a way to watch the maiden output on the command line, but I don’t know the incantations for that one.

[alphacactus]

vim is my goto editor, so I’m using the same approach. here are a few random vim thoughts.

• { and } are useful for quick file navigation as they jump entire blocks of code until the next white space is met
• search and replace http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Search_and_replace
• gg=G for quick formatting(use with caution and remember you can always undo with u)
• I to start editing from the beginning of a line
• A to start editing from the end of a line
• :vsplit to open multiple files at once(can’t find any good documentation links so just do a internet search for more info)
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1218390/what-is-your-most-productive-shortcut-with-vim

I could go on forever. the best advice I can give is to learn as you go. whenever something feels inefficient, that’s probably a good sign that you can learn a vim command to make it easier.

[junklight]

the time invested in becoming proficient in a good editor (vim, emacs (although obviously as a vim user I’m duty bound to make jokes about emacs users - it’s contractual in the vim eula) and there are now a few good desktop ones that people swear by) is well worth it.

[atomboyd]

Don’t forget :syntax on (in vim)

[alphacactus]

oh yes! there are a lot of good things you can and should add to your .vimrc file in the home directory. here are a few that I find useful(you may want to change tabs from 4 to 2 since it seems to be the lua norm).

colorscheme darkblue
syntax on
set hlsearch " hilite search "
set ic " ignore case "
set nu " line numbers "

filetype plugin indent on
set tabstop=4 " width of a TAB(\t) is set to 4 "
set softtabstop=4 " TAB(\t) inserts 4 spaces when in insert/edit mode "
set shiftwidth=4 " indents have a width of 4 "
set smarttab
set autoindent

" return to last edit position when opening files (you want this!) "
autocmd BufReadPost *
     \ if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$") |
     \   exe "normal! g`\"" |
     \ endif

[tehn]

general order of operations are a bit of a mystery since up until now i have just been mashing save/run in maiden and staring at the REPL for errors.

once you’re ssh’d in:

cd norns
./stop.sh
./crone.sh > /dev/nulll &
build/matron/matron

running matron without websocket redirection means you can type REPL directly into the terminal (helpful!) but there is no readline (ezra originally made a readline terminal-based maiden prior to the web maiden, but we removed it from the repo… maybe we can revive it)

workflow for script development:

open another terminal, run vim editing scripts in dust. to see changes, save file and use system menu on hardware to simply re-launch (SELECT) the script.

[okyeron]

What’s the best approach if I want to load a bunch of short samples to be triggered by grid? (like a grid of one-shots)

Looks like ack allows for 8 samples. To get like 32 or 64 samples, would I need to make a version of ack that supports that many samples, or are those like “voices” in a hardware sampler and I could potentially have many different samples loaded for each voice?

[zebra]

You could have more buffers than voices and provide a command to point a given voice at a an arbitrary buffer - this is simple and oefficient in SC but you gotta worry about buffer boundaries I guess.

Alternatively you could load your multiple samples into one large buffer and skip around in it

[dan_derks]

Norns: help

param midi learn

any special scripting necessary to get param midi learn working with a particular script? or any stuff that breaks it? a few folks have reported that they can’t map any of the params except volume in cranes

[tehn]

parameter mapping is currently limited to Control param types.

working on a big update for all param types, along with range scaling and rotary encoder support

(also fyi new standalone softcut is amazinggg)

[dan_derks]

new standalone softcut is amazinggg

so so so stoked!

rad to know re: Control params – speeds are all options, so mystery solved, thank you!

[disquiet]

Yeah, thanks so much. Looking forward to the update. Not hurry. Got plenty to keep me busy.

[dansimco]

Further to my thinking out loud about soundfile editing, saving files and the issue of filenaming: I was wondering if a nice solution to hunting through characters with encoders could be a random filename generator, but instead of characters and numbers it could generate filenames from a big dictionary of random words? I feel like it would be cool to have a lines’ey corpus of strings that could be mushed together to make quick filenames on the go for recordings that are more memorable than R-1239BLAH.wav

Useful or problematic?

[adrianf]

The ER-301 module does something similar with naming its custom units. Here is a link to a discussion of their new approach. https://forum.orthogonaldevices.com/t/random-custom-unit-naming/2379