The Heavy Audio Programming Language Specification - Intermediate Representation

Intermediate Representation

Heavy patches are translated into an intermediate representation (IR) before they are converted to source code. All optimisations have been applied, and the IR translator must simply generate source code. The IR dictionary contains several keys which make the function of the Heavy graph explicit.

• version
• name
• objects
• tables
• init
• control
• signal

version

The version, e.g. 0.14.0, indicates the format of the IR file. The version is tied to the release of heavy.

name

The name key assigns a namespace to the patch. It's value is a dictionary containing both escaped and display versions of the patch name. The escaped version is suitable for embedding into code.

{
  "name": {
    "escaped": "A_Cool_Patch_Name_",
    "display": "A Cool Patch Name!"
  }
}

objects

A dictionary of all objects and their arguments, indexed by their ids. All other sections will refer to their objects by id, and this dictionary can be used to look up relevant parameters.

{
  "objects": {
    "hY9Cy": {
      "args": {
        "k": 1.34,
        "operation": "+"
      },
      "type": "binop"
    }
  }
}

tables

The tables key lists all globally accessible (i.e. public at the root graph) tables and their ids. This information is used to refer to the tables from the external Heavy API.

{
  "tables": {
    "rat": {
      "extern": true,
      "hash": "0x64D40CF4",
      "id": "DJo1u",
      "display": "rat"
    },
    "dog": {
      "extern": false,
      "hash": "0x62A20F7E",
      "id": "iykjV",
      "display": "dog"
    }
  }
}

init

The init key indicates initialisation order. order provides an ordered list of ids for which objects must be initialised. The loadbang ordering indicates the order in which loadbang messages should be issued.

{
  "init": {
    "order": [
      "hY9Cy",
      "oDhfS"
    ]
  }
}

control

The control block contains information about receivers (receivers), and which functions to call when a message is sent to a receiver (sendMessage). The receivers key refers to a dictionary which is keyed with the escaped names of receivers (escaped names are suitable for embedding into code). The values are dictionaries which contain a display key indicating the original display name of the receiver.

{
  "receivers": {
    "freq": {
      "extern": "param",
      "attributes": {
        "default": 500.0,
        "max": 1000.0,
        "min": 0.0
      },
      "hash": "0x345FC008",
      "display": "freq",
      "ids": ["eWQFh"]
    },
    "bang": {
      "extern": "event",
      "attributes": {},
      "hash": "0xFFFFFFFF",
      "display": "bang",
      "ids": ["bgPcP"]
    },
    "hello": {
      "extern": false,
      "ids": ["djf72"]
    },
    "__hv_init": {
      "extern": false,
      "ids": ["djf72"]
    }
  },
  "sendMessage": [
    {
      "id": "kjhsd",
      "extern": "param",
      "hash": "0xFF035A1D",
      "name": "env",
      "onMessage": [
        [
          {
            "id": "heRfJ",
            "inletIndex": 0,
          }
        ]
      ]
    }
  ]
}

signal

The signal dictionary lists everything that is necessary to generate the process function of the patch. It indicates how many temporary stack buffers are required, whether or not a zeroed buffer is necessary, and the order of process functions as well as their buffer inputs.

• numTemporaryBuffers: The number of temporary buffers needed by this patch.
• requiresZeroBuffer: If a buffer of all zeros is needed at any signal input.
• processOrder: A list of process dictionaries.
• id: The object id.
• inputBuffers: A list of dictionaries describing the input buffers at each inlet of this object.
• outputBuffers: A list of dictionaries describing the output buffers at each outlet of this object.
  • type: The buffer type. Valid values are input, output, ~f>, ~i>, and zero.
  • index: The index of the buffer (e.g. channel number)

{
  "signal": {
    "numTemporaryBuffers": 4,
    "requiresZeroBuffer": false,
    "processOrder": [
      {
        "id": "kjsd7",
        "inputBuffers": [
          {
            "type": "~f>",
            "index": 1
          },
          {
            "type": "input",
            "index": 0
          }
        ],
        "outputBuffers": [
          {
            "type": "~f>",
            "index": 2
          },
          {
            "type": "output",
            "index": 1
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}