Mollytime is a virtual synthesizer, with a visual patch editor designed for touch screen devices. Mollytime is intended to be useful for live performances, and dynamic sound tracks for interactive media such as video-games and installation art.

While Mollytime is already quite usable, it is still missing quite a bit of polish and several major features, and is not quite ready for prime time.

Mollytime is a Python-based project, so you'll naturally need Python 3. Other Python package dependencies will be automatically acquired by the build system. These will go in your current environment, so setting up a venv is supported and recommended.

You'll also need a C++ toolchain to build the core extension module. Supported platforms, as in "we've tried these and it seems to work fine":

• Linux, via Clang or GCC, using glibc
• Windows, via Clang or MSVC, using MSVC 2022

Whatever you're using needs its binaries available on PATH.

Other dependencies you'll currently need to acquire yourself:

• JACK, if building with the JACK audio backend.
• Windows 11 SDK (10.0.22621.5040) or newer, if building with the WASAPI backend. (Don't worry, it also works with Windows 10.)
• boost_stacktrace, if building with stacktrace support.

Once you have determined the correct versions of each of these dependencies, please let me know and I'll write them down here.

Run this:

• python mollybuild.py setup <mode> <toolchain>

That's it! Now just run python -m mollytime to launch the project. When you do, the C++ extension module will be automatically recompiled if you've changed any source files since the last run..

You can see supported <mode>s and <toolchain>s by checking command help:

• python mollybuild.py setup -h

If you omit the toolchain, it'll detect your system "default." This might work even if your system default isn't on the supported list, but it might not.

After setup, run this:

• python mollybuild.py exe

This uses Pyinstaller to bundle the project & its dependencies into a single-file executable, output to a dist subfolder.

Run this:

• python mollybuild.py package <toolchain>

This executes build on the project, with all required settings pre-configured. An sdist and wheel will be output to a dist subfolder.

You can see supported <toolchain>s by checking command help:

• python mollybuild.py package -h

If you omit the toolchain, it'll detect your system "default." This might work even if your system default isn't on the supported list, but it might not.

Mollytime uses the Meson build system, and leverages meson-python for packaging.

If you'd prefer to build "manually," you'll need to install these dependencies:

• pip install meson
• pip install meson-python
• pip install ninja
• pip install pybind11
• pip install pyinstaller
• pip install pygame
• pip install build

Native environment config files are provided for the Meson build, in build_native/. You'll want to specify a build mode (mode-<mode>.ini), and a toolchain (toolchain-<os>-<tools>.ini).

For an iterative development workflow, run pip install for an editable wheel:

pip install
    -Ceditable-verbose=true
    -Csetup-args=--native-file=<absolute>/<path>/<to>/build_native/toolchain-<toolchain>.ini
    -Csetup-args=--native-file=<absolute>/<path>/<to>/build_native/mode-<mode>.ini
    -Csetup-args=-Dbuildtype=<mode>
    -Ccompile-args=-mollytime<python-extension-suffix>
    --editable .

Note that you have to manually specify the buildtype. This is due to an oversight in meson-python: its built-in option overrides are hardcoded as CLI args, meaning they always take priority over our native files. We have to claim even-higher priority by passing in our own CLI override.

Further note the need for an extension suffix on the the compiler-args. Without this, meson-python will unnecessarily build the Pyinstaller target, wasting a minute or more of time. Getting that suffix is up to you; or just omit the args, if you don't mind the wait.

If all goes well, you will then be able to run Mollytime like so:

• python -m mollytime

To build an executable, compile & install the target through the Meson project:

• meson compile -C <the build dir> mollytime-exe
• meson install -C <the build dir> --tags=exe

To package, run this lovely incantation, with your toolchain of choice:

python -m build
    -Csetup-args=--native-file=<absolute>/<path>/<to>/build_native/mode-release.ini
    -Csetup-args=--native-file=<absolute>/<path>/<to>/build_native/<toolchain>.ini`

Yes, you do need absolute paths for both.

Look at meson.options to see available build options. You'll probably want to select an audio_backend, at minimum. Be sure to reference Meson's built-in options for anything not covered here, like whether or not to emit optimized builds.

IMPORTANT: On Linux, you'll need to disable Meson's b_asneeded and b_lundef options.