Quick start

What is Extempore?

Extempore is a programming language for musical livecoding and algorithmic composition. If you're new to Extempore, YouTube has many videos that show it in action.

1 Getting started with Extempore

1.1 Main resources

Extempore Homepage and GitHub project: all you need to know about the Extempore language from its author Andrew Sorensen
Mailing List Archives: questions and answers from the community
VSCode plugin: an extension for the popular code editor that makes it easier to interact with the Extempore server

1.2 Other resources

Ben's livecoding tricks give you a hint of how to make music with Extempore
My own Functions navigator: a website that makes it easier to search and inspect Extempore's code base.

2 Installing Extempore

Warning

Section needs revision

Install latest release
Extract and open (some shortcuts available in bash_profile)
Install VSCode extension by pulling shared settings from gist
Set up keybindings eg for VsCode

2.1 Installation errors

January 4, 2021 Libportmidi error on workmac, after installing https://github.com/digego/extempore/releases/tag/v0.8.7

Evaluating expression: (sys:load "/Users/michele.pasin/Dropbox/code/extempore/xtm-hacking/init-extempore/LOAD_ALL.xtm")

Loading * "libs/core/pc_ivl.xtm" *
Loading * "libs/external/portmidi.xtm" *
Loading xtmbase library... done in 1.731826 seconds
Loading xtmportmidi library... Bad: dlopen(./libs/platform-shlibs/libportmidi.dylib, 9): no suitable image found.  Did find:
    ./libs/platform-shlibs/libportmidi.dylib: code signature in (./libs/platform-shlibs/libportmidi.dylib) not valid for use in process using Library Validation: library load disallowed by system policy
Error: could not open  dynamic library
^C
Received interrupt signal (SIGINT), exiting Extempore...

FIX:

open up folder in finder libs/platform-shlibs
right click open in OSx for all executables