4. Acknowledgements

I feel indebted to Prof. Jim Kippen (University of Toronto) for initiating a fascinating musical and scientific venture when he prompted me to design a "word-processor" for rhythmic material fifteen years ago. The years during which we developed BP1 and related tools have undoubtedly determined our present careers.

My wife Andréine, a dancer and choreographer who studied under Kathak maestro Pt. Birju Maharaj for about 18 years, deserves special thanks for her patience in seeing me spend days and nights on the computer. (Now she has her own computer and uses BP2 for contemporary rhythmic composition.)

Our teen-ager son Tansen, a wizzard in 3D animation, keeps on looking down at BP2's interface and questions its (my?) ability to deal with interactive graphics, QuickTime objects, virtual reality and the like. He was nevertheless impressed by scripts, new debugging techniques, and he even started liking some of the sound examples! He made no comment when he saw QuickTime Music running under OMS.

Colleagues at Centre de Sciences Humaines , New Delhi, deserve a special notice for tolerating strange sounds in the office, my bad mood after nights spent on programming, and delay in administrative or maintenance work.