Re: Using GCC for "real-time" compilation in audio engine development

[fche at redhat dot com (Frank Ch. Eigler)]

Torgeir Strand Henriksen <torgshen@stud.iet.hist.no> writes:

> [...]  Yes and no. While you could think of this as an input ->
> plugin -> output situation, the program isn't meant to load
> readymade audio engine plugins written in some programming language,
> but *create* the code based on a graphically editable
> structure. [...]

In other words, you're looking at dynamic synthesis of C code, to be
compiled into .so's in the background, and then loaded into a running
application.  FWIW, the front-end you referred to looks a lot like
LabVIEW, a granddaddy of visual programming systems.

I've used gcc for this sort of thing, in the context of a CPU
simulator (translating target machine code to portable C, thence via
gcc to native code).  Complications include designing the passing of
data and control across the boundary between the core application and
the synthesized code; .so lifetime/version control; overall gcc/gas/ld
latencies; having a clear mapping from the input language to C.  (Not
that it makes much difference, but you could consider generating C++
or Java.)


- FChE