added sample-editor scripting feature

[coderofsalvation]

A simple scripting-bridge for MilkyTracker SampleEditor
Instead of bloating milkytracker with more effects/plugins, the burden of maintenance is reversed: external
applications & scripts can 'hook' into the sample-editor using the 'Script'-contextmenu.

DEMO video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dG_vmeCFSbmhLlnlHpgcLNB6zScXXTng/view?usp=sharing

Usecases

• generate samples using puredata/csound or your favorite wave-editor etc
• dump gig/sf2-soundfont wave-files into directory
• write custom SAMPLERS: sample ANY SYNTH/APP/INPUT into milkytracker
• apply a complex effect to a sample
• automate tedious tasks
• use your favorite scripting language to automate things
• Create script-pipelines between different tools / commands, pick random samples from folders etc.

example scripting: https://gitlab.com/coderofsalvation/milkytracker-scripts

[Claytone]

This is actually insanely cool, thanks for sharing!

[minidcon7]

Why is pull request not accepted?.

[coderofsalvation]

we had a big release blocking this feature (we wanted to take things step by step) but this might soon get some attention again

[coderofsalvation]

I've been thinking about the following:

Embedding lua is something I've played with (and discussed with others).
However, I've noticed that a lua api is easy to put in, but makes things hard to maintain and/or change (changing an api-call will break all previous scripts, requires versioning and much more testing for all platforms.).
Therefore, I still think the polyglot 'script-out' approach (of this PR) might be more lightweight, without ballooning the lightweight-ness of milkytracker (which runs on haiku, amiga etc).

perhaps broadening this feature, would allow for more generic and powerful polyglot integrations/plugins:

pattern editor

~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.pattern.txt

generate pattern; generateXPpattern.sh %s
import midi; midi2xp %s %s |.mid
export midi; xp2midi %s

Note: |.mid will make milkytracker popup a filepicker (which filters on .mid files) before calling midi2xp <midifile> /tmp/pattern.xp

rightclick > Script > generate pattern         
                      import midi
                      export midi
                      ------------
                      scripts config                        # calls linux/mac: $EDITOR ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.pattern.txt
                                                                          mac:  open  ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.pattern.txt
                                                                          win: start ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.pattern.txt      

sample editor

~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.sample.txt

sox chorus;sox %s -D %s chorus 0.7 0.9 55 0.4 0.25 2 -t
sox contrast;sox %s -D %s contrast 0.2
AI generate trumpet;apicall_to_LLM %s

see example: https://gitlab.com/coderofsalvation/milkytracker-scripts/-/blob/master/scripts.txt?ref_type=heads

rightclick > Script > sox chorus         
                      sox contrast
                      AI generate trumpet
                      ------------
                      scripts config                       # calls linux: $EDITOR ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.sample.txt
                                                                          mac:  open  ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.sample.txt
                                                                          win: start ~/$CONFIGPATH/scripts.sample.txt        

Any feedback appreciated

[coderofsalvation]

There have been ideas in the milkytracker chat about a controlling the cursor with a script:

<raina> this sounds like a thing for some external accessibility automator, it would just need the cursor position and editstep from milky. like when you hit a special key combo, IF you're on the note column, insert note 1, tab, insert note 2, tab, insert note 3 and shift-tab back to the original column. it would need to know how many rows to step back too between each note

Idea: instead of pattern editor script (shell/py/lua/bat/ps1) just exiting with code 0.
When it returns a string starting with MTKB: then all ascii/controlcharacters can be parsed by milkytracker as keyboard input.
SInce the first argument of a pattern script (%s) is the pattern (.xp file), any script can optionally analyze the current pattern-state as well.
Perhaps 3 extra arguments should be passed: cursor-row, cursor-channel, cursor-column

$ ./mypatternscript.py currentpattern.xp 23 1 7
MTKB: ^[[tab..... 

this hypothetical script would receive (and optionally mutate) currentpattern.xp, receive cursor on row 23, channel 1, last effect column (7) and return keystrokes as a response.