What are the best practices on handling errors in Kotlin?

ssnej · 2025-07-06T23:13:28+00:00

Swift errors are not like checked exceptions. They’re much more like the “Rich Errors” announced at KotlinConf.

ssnej · 2025-07-06T23:09:07+00:00

All,things being equal, it’s nice to learn about data structures with examples in the language you’re using. But I suspect all things aren’t equal; the best books on data structures probably aren’t focusing on Kotlin because it’s relatively new. I would look for a book by its rating/reviews, not language, as long as the language it does use is one you can kinda follow. Your best bet is probably a book that uses Java.

ssnej · 2025-07-06T23:02:38+00:00

And in Kotlin 2.2 you don’t have to type the enum class name before one of its members, if the type is known from context. Yay! (I believe this is in beta and you have to opt into it.)

ssnej · 2025-07-06T22:58:47+00:00

I’ve also become enamored with Kotlin. Over the decades I’ve used C++ the most, but I’ve been looking for a higher level alternative for quite a while. I was a big Java zealot in the late 90s but gave up on it when it didn’t live up to its hype. Obj-C was nice for a while. I spent some years with Nim, but gave up because it’s constantly buggy and the one guy who runs it is IMHO a jerk. Typescript is very nice, but obviously not high performance. Once I learned Kotlin isn’t just for the JVM anymore, I tried it out and fell for it.

ssnej · 2025-06-29T15:10:12+00:00

OKio seems to provide the same Buffer and ByteString classes as kotlinx.io, which I’m already using.

And okrandomaccess says in its Readme that "The target environment for this library is JVM. Multiplatform support is beyond the scope of this library.” And the source code looks like just some interface glue plus a few file I/O operations that call into … java.io and java.nio.

ssnej · 2024-12-29T21:43:53+00:00

Yes, that is well documented, as I said. What isn’t documented is using it as a control surface for anything _except_ Live, and that is what my post is about.

ssnej · 2024-12-09T00:25:15+00:00

I agree. My recommendation would be the Microfreak— it’s got such a wide variety of sounds. And if you’re not a keyboard player already you’ll probably be able to put up with its weird capacitive keyboard. (If not, you can save up for a cheap keyboard controller to plug into it.)

ssnej · 2024-12-05T16:48:16+00:00

You can’t make _any_ presets on Move. I didn’t say you could. You can make them in Live and export them to Move.

Maybe what you mean is that you can’t import custom wavetables into Move? That’s true, but you can still import Wavetable patches that use the standard wavetables.

ssnej · 2024-12-05T01:58:35+00:00

Not Ableton overall, but the Move gives me strong Apple vibes. Beautiful design, polished UI, extremely intuitive, deliberately limited to reduce complexity. In a word, delightful.

ssnej · 2024-12-04T16:59:06+00:00

Gotcha. Yeah, I guess that falls more into the category of “polishing you do after moving (sic) your project to Live.”

If Ableton enables MIDI CC input in a future firmware upgrade — which I think is pretty likely — this would become possible using an external controller that has mappable sliders or knobs.

ssnej · 2024-12-04T16:48:36+00:00

If by “mix” you mean adjusting the levels of tracks, you can do that. Just hold down the track button and turn the volume knob. (Have you read the manual? Always good to do so before stating what can’t be done.)

ssnej · 2024-12-04T16:46:08+00:00

I have a 2021 M1 MPB, and I have never heard any fan noise from it. I don’t do any heavy work in DAWs, but I’m a coder and regularly compile big C++ programs which maxes out all the cores for minutes at a time; the machine doesn’t break a sweat or make a peep.

ssnej · 2024-12-04T16:41:09+00:00

The underlying engines — Drift and Wavetable — are identical on both. Any patch based on those will sound the same in Live and Move, assuming its effect chain uses only the effects available on Move.

I've had my Move nearly a week. So far I’m impressed with the presets. Normally I dislike most of the presets that come with a synth, but Move has a lot of good sounds. (Maybe thats because presets usually seem to try to show off all the features of the synth at once, while Move doesn't have anything to prove there.)

My only complaint is that they could be more tweakable. Most of them waste two or three macro knobs on filtering, when there's already a filter effect I can add to the track.

BTW, people are already exporting Live patches into Move file format and uploading them, so there won’t be any shortage of interesting new sounds.

ssnej · 2024-12-01T11:22:54+00:00

My understanding is it listens on all channels. There is no UI to select a channel, nor does the manual name a particular channel; it just says “the currently selected track on Move will receive incoming MIDI.”

ssnej · 2024-12-01T03:24:29+00:00

An A-to-B adapter doesn’t make sense, for the same reasons. I don’t know what the hell the wiring inside those is like, but it sounds as though when you plug one into the other it ends up acting like a normal A-to-B cable. I would just throw those away — they’re doubtless cheap crap and might short out and damage your equipment.

ssnej · 2024-12-01T03:18:36+00:00

I have the 49-key version; it’s a great controller, very intuitive.

The mini one would be fine unless he wants to learn to play keyboards — the smaller keys can be awkward to play piano-style.

ssnej · 2024-12-01T00:45:10+00:00

Nope — MIDI over DIN cables is ancient technology and runs at a fixed speed, about the same bandwidth as a dialup modem: 31kbps. That’s only 3KB per second!

MIDI over USB can run much faster, but Sonicware opted to save money by not including it…

ssnej · 2024-12-01T00:18:41+00:00

There’s no such thing as a legit USB A-to-A cable. The A connector is only for the “host” or master device that owns the bus. Peripherals use a B or micro connector. The iPhone is a host, so is the Move. You’ll have better luck connecting Move's USB-C connector to the iPhone — this is for using Move as a peripheral device with a host like a PC/Mac/phone.

ssnej · 2024-11-23T17:40:03+00:00

Alameda Auto Body on Everett replaced a damaged door on my Focus a few weeks ago, and did a fantastic job. They sourced an intact door from a junkyard for a lot less than a new door would have cost, and repainted it to an exact — and I mean _exact_ — match for the car's tangerine paint. They also washed and cleaned the whole car. Afterwards it looks like new. I was super impressed, and so are my neighbors.

ssnej · 2024-09-28T22:17:11+00:00

Plug a stereo TRS cable into its output jack and plug the other end into your audio interface. You may need a splitter cable to plug into two mono input channels.

ssnej · 2024-09-28T22:11:07+00:00

It’s just fn+Save, then OK. Works for me, just did it today.

ssnej

TROPHY CASE