Preliminary words

Sardine will allow you to fly. Before flying, please make sure that you have wings. Otherwise, you are just building a rocket and you will crash into a wall. Read this page carefully, prepare your computer for installation. In particular we will make sure that:

  1. You know how Python is installed.
  2. You downloaded all the required software.
  3. You understand what Sardine is.

1) The proper way to install Python

xkcd

It is extremely important to know how your current version of Python is installed.

  • You can have multiple versions of Python running on the same system.
  • Always prefer a version of Python that you installed yourself.
  • Be careful with aliases. On Windows, people often have python and py living side by side.
  • They are not the same installation of Python.

You will now install Pyenv, the only Python version manager that you can trust. For Windows, please install Pyenv for Windows. The installation process is well explained by the Pyenv team. Once it is done, please run the following commands:

  • pyenv install python3.11: install Python 3.11 with all its bells and whistles.
  • pyenv global python3.11: make this version the base install on your system.

Now, kill your command line and restart a fresh terminal. The output of python --version should look like you have installed a Python 3.11 version:

❯ python --version
Python 3.11.3

2) Other versions of Sardine

  • As funny as it may sound, I am not the owner of the sardine package on Pypi. Sardine is named sardine-system. Some people sometimes end up installing a totally unrelated tool!
  • sardine-system is very outdated. Please install from source.

3) The modular architecture of Sardine

  • Sardine is a very flexible software. It can be hard to install for that reason.
  • You probably don't need everything but you need to understand the architecture:
    • Sardine web is an optional text editor for Sardine written in TypeScript.
    • Sardine is an asynchronous Python interpreter firing up the Sardine library.
    • Sardine Core is the Python library that is responsible for all that livecoding.
      • it defines a temporal engine allowing you to live code in Python.
      • it communicates through the OSC protocol or through MIDI ports.
      • it allows you to create musical code using powerful patterning engines.