I feel like if a Raspberry Pi could run Sonic Pi, then my iPhone probably could run it right? I think it would be cool if there was some sort of mobile version of Sonic Pi. Maybe that version could have a streaming social media service built in, allowing users to share their songs as code with their friends. I only see this causing issues if they started using custom sample packs. But if the app built an “imported sample” folder within its own directory that you had to save the samples to, I think you could potentially simplify the pathing. Or at the very least making a way for us to share our code with an existing social media site. Like a web client version of Sonic Pi that we can link to on twitter so people can watch the program run as they listen without needing to download Sonic Pi.
I feel that coding on a mobile device would be really a drag, and almost impossible in a live coding setting. You can already stream sonic pi coding using regular streaming software like OBS Studio, and sharing code is easily accomplished using git. To be brutally honest, I can’t see how this would be worth the effort. The web player could be useful, but it would require making Supercollider work on a webpage, which I’m not sure is possible.
That’s not to say that mobile devices have no place in working with Sonic Pi. I have used Touch OSC to turn my smartphone into a MIDI controller, and barring some performance issues (which I’m sure could be sorted out if I knew what I was doing), it works perfectly.
None of my friends will download Git, I have to make videos if I wanna share the code too right now. But I disagree about coding on mobile, the average adult types faster on mobile and yeah maybe not the best for live coding but I’m always on the go and don’t own a laptop. I’d still enjoy experimenting with fun code ideas I have on the fly though, and would suffer the smaller screen. And you can’t convince me that the current method of sharing your music is working as efficiently as sharing your music on mobile would. I think mobile would attract more attention to Sonic Pi on the whole
A study alluded to by the BBC says otherwise…
Anyway, leaving aside the suitability of a mobile screen for live coding, my guess is that we would likely rely on the kind contributions of folks in the community (either by financially supporting Sam, or contributing with code) to see something like this take shape, at least for a while, as I suspect there are higher priorities on the Sonic Pi todo list. I may be wrong, but that’s the impression I get
There are (incomplete) experiments in containerising Sonic Pi with Docker, such that we could possibly run an instance on a web server - I think this would be a great thing if it ended up working. Again though, this would still require someone to have the resources to be able to work on it!
Incidentally, while not necessarily mobile specific, several of the things already on the wish list (as seen on Sam’s patreon page) are similar to those you have mentioned - a code sharing platform, and distributed performances (to stream your Sonic Pi performance around the world). If the containerisation/web server thing worked, then who knows, perhaps these other things could be accessed from a mobile as well
And you can’t convince me that the current method of sharing your music is working as efficiently as sharing your music on mobile would
I don’t really understand what you mean by “sharing your music on mobile”. Are we talking about social media in general?
To be honest I wouldn’t like to code on a mobile device with any kind of
virtual keyboard.
Having said that, I can see a place for a ‘runtime only’ Sonic Pi… you email
your code to a friend and they either save and run or C & P then run it…
You are still getting your code ‘out there’ but your friends and other people aren’t
bunging up their phone/tablet with a full size app, but simply a player to playback the
code.
In fact, a player or jukebox app on any platform, would be very useful both for us as
‘artists’ ( I use the word lightly in my case), and in getting the word out about the full-
blown SPi.
What makes more of an impression on (a stranger) someone?.. ‘Hey yeah, download
this app, now copy this code, now adjust all these settings…’ or: Watch! (pulls out phone
with player and 6 rad songs on… ’ … I’d have already smiled and walked away from the
first guy… but the second guy would already have me hooked.
I regularly (when the weathers dryer and warmer, of course) take an Android tablet running
Dub Music player and a 12 W bluetooth speaker down to my local pubs beer garden. It’s choc
full of Motown, Soul, Jazz Funk, (early) Hip Hop and other stuff I know will be popular. I get a
lot of people coming up to me and starting conversations, so trust me, I know what I’m talking
about here.
EDIT: Or I suppose you could just save them as .wavs, dump them on a portable wireless hot-spot
drive with no password and anyone in range can play them… those things are cheap as chips these
days.
Eli…