To begin

Navigate to the folder (the directory) in which SuperCollider resides and double-click on it (the red and white balloon icon). An untitled document with text such as

init_OSC

compiling class library..

NumPrimitives = 548

compiling dir: '/Applications/SuperCollider3/SCClassLibrary'

pass 1 done

Method Table Size 3091264 bytes

Number of Method Selectors 2880

Number of Classes 1744

Number of Symbols 6926

Byte Code Size 129989

compiled 299 files in 1.61 seconds

compile done

prGetHostByName hostname 127.0.0.1 addr 2130706433

RESULT = 256

Class tree inited in 0.09 seconds

appears in the top left of the screen. The document functions as a "Post Window," so-called because SuperCollider uses it to "post" notifications.

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Two more windows

On the bottom of the screen are two more windows. One is called "localhost server" and the other is "internal server." Click on the "boot" button on the localhost server. The words "localhost" in the black box of the button turn red and the word "Boot" on the button changes to "Quit." More text, such as

booting 57110

SC_AudioDriver: numSamples=512, sampleRate=44100.000000

start UseSeparateIO?: 0

PublishPortToRendezvous 0 57110

SuperCollider 3 server ready..

notification is on

will print to the post window. The localhost server is now ready to be used. Activate the internal server, if you wish, in the same way.

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Workspace windows

Open existing SC documents with File->Open... or cmd-o. Use File->New or cmd-n to create new documents.

SuperCollider documents generally have .sc appended to their file names; however, SuperCollider can read and write documents in Rich Text Format (.rtf) and several other formats, as well.

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go to 2_Evaluating_code