New Open-Source G2 Editor RFC

[ChrisPurusha]

By the way, I have an Apple M4 MBP on order, so should be able to test my ‘C’ next week.

[ChrisPurusha]

Having a good dig into JUCE today. That might be the way forward for the GUI.

Not going to be easy though! Pretty advanced JUCE, and I'm only getting to grips with the basics!

[ChrisPurusha]

Now I have an M4 machine, I found what look like a couple of bugs in the implementation on there. One makes sense, just didn't hit it on the Intel machine.

One looks like a bug in the Apple IOKit layers. An interrupt message contains an extended data response! Worked around it for now.

GitHub repository contains the fixes.

[hyperstationjr]

I’m a long-time G2 user with a professional background in graphic design. I’ve not worked on application UI but I have done plenty of website UI and UX design. I’m not sure how much help I’d be but certainly willing to lend a hand. Feel free to reach out, happy to discuss more and assist where I can.

[ChrisPurusha]

[Eag]

[ChrisPurusha]

All. I'm making progress.

Rendering a couple of modules, which have some working parameters reading/writing to the synth. The GUI dials work. Buttons also work.

...and breaking news - my first cable connecting modules!

If there are any 'C' or C++ programmers around here who want to get involved, drop me a line. This is quite a big set of work for one person to finish and I'm potentially getting involved in a day-job contract soon!

---

Screenshot 2025-02-22 at 4.13.14 pm.png
Description:	Houston, we have a cable!
Filesize:	211.14 KB
Viewed:	123 Time(s)
This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

---

[ChrisPurusha]

This is the old editor representation of the same very simple patch, for comparison. So, module representation is working. Need to populate all the different module types (which is arguably the main slog). Lots of other work to do for completion: file access, variations, module creation/deletion and dragging etc. cable creation/deletion. All the stuff which needs to go onto menus.

Also want to make the module area zoom-able, which should be possible.

---

SimplePatch.jpeg
Description:
Filesize:	199.44 KB
Viewed:	117 Time(s)
This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

---

[ChrisPurusha]

Work-in-progress now published as open-source here:

https://github.com/chrispurusha/G2-Edit

[nord_balls]

Wow I somehow missed all this action! @ChrisParusha sorry to miss these posts and great progress. I have a progress report, everything is visible at https://github.com/sirlensalot/g2fx . I can also give a report on my compilation attempts of the Delphi code.


1. USB/Protocol. This is pretty much done from a read perspective, the only part I haven't gotten to is writing data back. It does read and write to patch and perf files though. It features a complete wire protocol for pretty much every read datatype.

2. GUI with JavaFX. I decided to bite the bullet and with AI help start work on a JavaFX frontend. I'll put a better screenshot up, but for now I have a working editor frame -- global, editor and patch toolbars wired up. For instance morph knobs switch on slot and variation, load meters work, etc.

I'm interested in help but not sure the project is ready for it. Currently I'm evaluating approaches for drawing modules. Using data from the Delphi open-source project is a decent approach, but it leans on image data a lot and maybe looks a little clunky compared to ian-s code. Ian-s js module code (really JSON) is more attractive, but the inability to get a response on reuse or better a license is a deterrent. Probably going to proceed with drawing from the open-source data and tuning that, since it's GPL. At some point I need to harmonize my BSD3 contribs with the source GPL (g2ools is also GPL). Once that framework is settled the long haul of getting the 180+ modules drawn begins.

Anyway, JavaFX seems like a controversial choice, but given the sorry state of crossplatform desktop frontend dev in 2025, it's almost the least-bad. The css support alone makes it not completely embarrassing, and it's not going away anytime soon. It helped that I independently came across JavaFX editors for other open source music hardware things like XFM. In any case thanks to LLMs I've made rapid progress there and have a working backend-UI architecture.

DELPHI CODE: I got a Win11 ARM VM running, and tried building ... no go. There's a 32bit UI library in heavy use that has simply not been ported to new architectures. This was a big reason for eventually deciding to dive into GUI coding, as I see no way forward investing in some new Delphi UI lib.

@ChrisPurusha feel free to join this effort, or conversely crib anything you like! I know java isn't everyone's cup of coffee.

EDIT as far as module-drawing goes, I have a yaml file which puts the Delphi Gen1 module .txt files into a single file. Next step there is to write png files for all the text-encoded data as there's a lot of duplication, and write the png filenames back to the yaml as the final touch. https://github.com/sirlensalot/g2fx/blob/main/src/main/resources/org/g2fx/g2gui/module-uis-1.yaml

---

g2fx.png
Description:
Filesize:	165.28 KB
Viewed:	113 Time(s)
This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

---

[NordG3]

[nord_balls]

[nord_balls]

More progress. The yaml made from the open-source code is starting to pay off, "power buttons", text toggles (e.g. "KB", "Side Chain") are done, as well as text labels.

There's going to be plenty of tuning but it's nice to see finally some re-use of brunov's tremendous effort!

---

g2fx-20250817.png
Description:
Filesize:	397.84 KB
Viewed:	115 Time(s)
This image has been reduced to fit the page. Click on it to enlarge.

---

[xav]

Excited by this project and what you already made. I wish I was able to help.

[ChrisPurusha]

For info - things are slowly moving ahead on my editor, with at least one other collaborator.

I was working on it whilst between jobs, but I got a new position in July last year, which has been sucking all of my time away.

I'm now thinking of retiring from the software engineering game in a few months, so might be able to push forward.

I'm working on the core and the other guy is implementing modules. We're going to need the community to help with testing though.

[blue hell]

[ChrisPurusha]

Thanks. Mainly testing of the modules and functionality vs. the original editor. Progress isn't fast, but I reckon most of the difficult stuff is done. A few protocol areas to finish yet, but the editor works for the modules we have implemented. Also recently got pch2 file saving and loading working.

We're all working on local builds, using Xcode. If you're not able to use that, we can start to look at binary releases. Just need somewhere to host them. Maybe just straight into Git? Currently building on an Apple Silicon machine and on an Intel machine. Not sure how easy it is to export a universal binary. Haven't tried that yet. Might have to be Apple/Intel separate files short-term.

Here's something I'd like an opinion on though. Doesn't necessarily need to work the same as the original editor, but:

File saving and loading works without the G2 as-is (a bit more testing would be good). Question is - how and when to push/pull the data to/from the G2?

I'm currently pulling the patch data clean from the G2 on connection, but maybe we want to maintain the editor's data when re-connecting? Currently have a file load and save button, but maybe we need buttons for pushing/pulling to/from the G2?

Please do let me know with any thoughts on the above!

[ChrisPurusha]

Plenty of areas to improve and mechanisms to implement, including.

- Performance editing
- Cable colouring and hiding
- Module naming
- Module colour selection
- Group module selection
- Sending a full patch to G2, rather than individual edits
- Icon representation of waves etc. (low priority - will work short term with text)

Main guy I'm working with is: Øyvind Jacobsen Bjørkås, who's implementing the modules.

We can of course, go above and beyond the functionality of the OG editor. Some algorithmic AI and maybe macro generation of groups of modules? It's all open-source, so the community can do what it likes with it. Branch and re-implement if it really wants to.

Hoping the ultimately, the Usual Suspect guys might even be able to emulate the G2 and possibly re-use some of my work.

[blue hell]

Ok, from https://github.com/chrispurusha/G2-Edit then .. let me get that and try to compile ..

[blue hell]

In XCode :

Project /Users/jan/_MyProjects/github/G2-Edit/G2 Gui.xcodeproj cannot be opened because it is missing its project.pbxproj file.

and then xcode needs be force quit .. ok .. next ...

Project /Users/jan/_MyProjects/github/G2-Edit/G2-edit.xcodeproj compiles and runs .. and I can open a patch

what is do-uncrustify for? It seems to just generate an error when i run it?

[blue hell]

For uncrustify :

[ChrisPurusha]

Don’t worry about decrustify. It’s a ‘C’ beautifier. I occasionally run it here.

Obvs. Everything is at your own risk at the minute. Backups recommended.

Someone tweaked my zoom mechanism, I think if you hold cmd, mouse wheel will let you zoom. Cables work on some modules. Looks like maybe not the ones you have there, or at least they’re not meant to. Looks like one of my set of test files. They mostly just present modules, without patches.

Sorry can’t help too much today. Taking daughters back to Uni etc.

Nice work getting it building and running though!

[ChrisPurusha]

Do connect it up via USB to your hardware though. Dials etc. should work!

[blue hell]

Could run some wires, yes .. and when saved they will load again .. could use at least some buttons and knobs.

And backup, I occasionally even do that - like yesterday

Anyway, will want to look at the code first now to get some idea of how it all works and connects together.

Planning to have time for that the coming week.

Oh ok . the hardware should do something too .. did not try that .. it will need another editor too I guess .. not having that running currently on new computers.

[ChrisPurusha]

Connect up! You might be surprised what works!