SuperCollider “Quarks” are extensions for the SuperCollider programming language, distributed using the Quarks package-manager built into SuperCollider. To install any of the quarks listed below, execute Quarks.install(“thequarkname”) in SuperCollider, or Quarks.gui for a graphical installer.
Running the command Quarks.gui will give you a nice looking GUI that not yet supported on the Windows version of Supercollider. When you first open the GUI you will see an error message directing you where to manually install your quarks but from my tests the directory provided is incorrect. Since the only information I could find on this was a forum post from 2008 I decided to should put together some current info.
Execute the following line in Supercollider, it will return the correct directory to place your quarks in. thisProcess.platform.userExtensionDir. (On my system the directory is C:UsersjsiemaskSuperColliderExtensions).
Create a directory on your system to download the Quarks repository to. Do not do this inside your Supercollider folder.
Right-click on the folder and choose SVN Checkout…
In the checkout window that appears enter the following for URL of repository: https://svn.code.sf.net/p/quarks/code/ (NOTE: Repository has moved since this screen shot was taken.)
Hit OK. It may take several minutes for the download to complete.
Inside the folder you will find a folder for each quark. To install, copy the quark folder to the directory returned in step 1.
After installing a quark you will need to recompile the class library or restart Supercollider.
Some quick tips:
Install only one Quark at a time. It will make it easier to figure out the cause if you have issues.
Many quarks have prerequisites that need to be installed first. Check the documentation for the particular quark.
Some quarks are OS specific and may not work on your system.
When in doubt check the help files included with the quark.
I am still exploring much of what is available with quarks. In later posts I will go into more detail on individual quarks. To get you started I recommend checking out dewdrop_lib, this is a large and well documented quark that contains many useful things.
