A Linux and Mac OS X version of MPfm is now in the works!

Hi everyone,

After working on a prototype using the Mono Framework (the open source version of the .NET Framework), I am happy to announce that a Linux and Mac OS X version of MPfm is now in the works!

The UI will be similar but will use a native UI toolkit on each platform:

• Microsoft Windows: Windows Forms
• Linux: GTK+ (GTK# bindings for Mono)
• Mac OS X: Cocoa (MonoMac)

The best thing about Mono is I can re-use the same code base for just about everything except for the UI. There are a few exceptions (audio drivers, database access) but 95% of the code stays the same. If you’re a Linux and/or Mac OS X developer, and you work with the Mono Framework, you will be able to use the MPfm framework to make your own audio applications!

There will be a few differences in the support of audio files and audio drivers per platform. For example, the APE (Monkey’s Audio) audio files are not playable on Linux and Mac OS X because there are no APE decoders available on these platforms (see the Wikipedia article). In the near future, I will release a table of supported features per platform.

I am expecting to release the first public alpha versions around June 2012. I am not ready to announce a date for the first beta versions. The Mac OS X version will be available on the App Store for free when the first beta is released.

I am also checking out Xcode on the Mac OS to develop a future iPhone/iPad version of MPfm. The BASS audio library is also available on the iOS and Android platforms. Unfortunately, the code base for these versions would be completely different because the Mono developers have decided to charge developers for MonoTouch. MonoTouch is the iOS and Android version of Mono. Since MPfm is an open-source project and will always be free, the MonoTouch license does not fit with our license. In any case, this version of MPfm will not see the light of day before the end of the year.

By the way, if any developers are interested in taking part of the MPfm development, let me know. I’d be glad to work with other great audio programmers who can contribute making MPfm the best audio player for musicians on the market.

Have fun with MPfm and take care!

Tags: iPad, iPhone, Linux, Mac OS X, Mono, MonoTouch

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 4th, 2012 at 9:24 am by Yanick Castonguay and is filed under Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.