Nyquist Globals

There are many global variables in Nyquist. A convention in Lisp is to place asterisks (*) around global variables, e.g. *table*. This is only a convention, and the asterisks are just like any other letter as far as variable names are concerned. Here are some globals users should know about:

*table*
Default table used by osc and other oscillators.

*A4-Hertz*
Frequency of A4 in Hertz.. Note: you must call (set-pitch-names) to recompute pitches after changing *A4-Hertz*.

*breakenable*
Controls whether XLisp enters a break loop when an error is encountered.

*control-srate*
Part of the environment, establishes the control sample rate. See Section ``The Environment'' for details.

*default-sf-bits*
The default bits-per-sample for sound files. Typically 16.

*default-sf-dir*
The default sound file directory. Unless you give a full path for a file, audio files are assumed to be in this directory.

*default-sf-format*
The default sound file format. When you write a file, this will be the default format: AIFF for Mac and most Unix systems, NeXT for NeXT systems, and WAV for Win32.

*default-sf-srate*
The default sample rate for sound files. Typically 44100.0, but often set to 22050.0 for speed in non-critical tasks.

*default-control-srate*
Default value for *control-srate*. This value is restored when you execute (top) to pop out of a debugging session. Change it by calling (set-control-srate value).

*default-sound-srate*
Default value for *sound-srate*. This value is restored when you execute (top) to pop out of a debugging session. Change it by calling (set-sound-srate value).

*file-separator*
The character that separates directories in a path, e.g. ``/'' for Unix, ``:'' for Mac, and ``\'' for Win32. This is normally set in system.lsp.

*rslt*
When a function returns more than one value, *rslt* is set to a list of the ``extra'' values. This provides a make-shift version of the multiple-value-return facility in Common Lisp.

*sound-srate*
Part of the environment, establishes the audio sample rate. See Section ``The Environment'' for details.

*soundenable*
Controls whether writes to a sound file will also be played as audio. Set this variable by calling (sound-on) or (sound-off).

*tracenable*
Controls whether XLisp prints a backtrace when an error is encountered.

Environment variables
See ``The Environment'' for definitions of variables used in the environment for behaviors. In general, you should never set or access these variables directly.

Various constants
See ``Predefined Constants'' for definitions of predefined constants for loudness, duration, and pitch.


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