OSC on Python

OSC on python

What follows is a comparison of different python modules that each implement OSC to some degree.

(The purpose of this is/was to help consider moving away from pyliblo - it has not been updated in a long time and the author hasn't been active for several years - but this may also prove useful to other interested parties.)

Feel free to suggest other modules not mentioned below.

So, in no particular order, the modules at a glance:

Module	Licence	Latest Release		Last Known Activity	Transport		SLiP Encoding
.		Version	Date		UDP	TCP
pyliblo	LGPL 2.1	0.10.0	2015-04	2016-06	Yes	with PR	with PR
pyliblo3	LGPL 2.1	0.16.2	2024-07	2024-07	Yes	One-way	No
aiolo	BSD 3-Clause	4.1.1	2020-07	2020-07	Yes	Maybe	Single-ENDed
python-osc	Unlicenced	1.9.0	2024-08	2024-08	Yes	Yes	Yes
pyOSC	LGPL 2.1	0.3.5b-5294	2008-08	2011-06	Yes	Yes	No
oscpy	MIT	0.6.0	2023-06	2023-12	Yes	No	No
osc4py3	CeCILL 2.1	1.0.8	2018-08	2021-12	Yes	WIP	Single/Double

pyliblo

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/pyliblo/
• http://das.nasophon.de/pyliblo/ (project website)
• https://github.com/dsacre/pyliblo (source)
• http://dsacre.github.io/pyliblo/doc/ (documentation)
• https://repology.org/project/pyliblo and https://repology.org/project/python:pyliblo

Good:

• python binding for the excellent liblo library.

Ugly:

• No response to issues/PRs from Author in recent years (in fact, Author not active publicly on GitHub in any meaningful fashion since August 2018).

pyliblo3

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/pyliblo3/
• https://github.com/gesellkammer/pyliblo3 (source)
• https://repology.org/project/python:pyliblo3

Good:

• python binding for the excellent liblo library, like the project it was forked from.

Ugly:

• Forked from pyliblo (first commit of repository is version 0.9.1, the next commit jumps to 0.10.0), but the change-history of its origin was not retained, nor does it attribute any of the original author(s) (in the commit metadata or in commit messages).
• Most releases are not tagged in the source.

aiolo

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/aiolo/
• https://github.com/elijahr/aiolo (source)

Good:

• python binding for the excellent liblo library.

Worth noting:

• Makes use of python's asyncio module.

Bad:

• Documentation non-existent (even code-comments are scarce).

Ugly:

• Received messages are stripped of context (source address, OSC path): only a message's value(s) are dispatched to listeners. This makes it impossible to tell where a message came from (and thus, where to send a response).

python-osc

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/python-osc/
• https://github.com/attwad/python-osc (source)
• https://python-osc.readthedocs.io/ (documentation)
• https://repology.org/project/python:python-osc

Good:

• At first glance, this appears to have a fairly clean API.

Fair:

• Project is maintained, but not actively developed (admitted in https://github.com/attwad/python-osc/issues/128#issuecomment-753635939).

pyOSC

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/pyOSC/
• https://trac.v2.nl/wiki/pyOSC (project website, dead)
• https://gitorious.org/pyosc (source, dead)
• https://github.com/ptone/pyosc (mirror)

Bad:

• Last known commit was 11 years ago.
• Readme refers to a 0.3.6 release that isn't tagged on GitHub, nor available on PyPI. (The most recent release available is 0.3.5b-5294)

Ugly:

• Project website is offline (viewable on archive.org).
• Primary source was on Gitorious, which is now defunct.
• No response to issues or PRs (on GitHub) from project creators.
• No fewer than two PRs (on GitHub) claiming to make it compatible with some version of python 3

oscpy

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/oscpy/
• https://github.com/kivy/oscpy (source)
• https://repology.org/project/oscpy

osc4py3

Links:

• https://pypi.org/project/osc4py3/
• https://perso.limsi.fr/pointal/dev:osc4py3 (project website)
• https://sourcesup.renater.fr/scm/viewvc.php/osc4py3/ (source)
• https://github.com/Xinne/osc4py3 (mirror)
• https://osc4py3.readthedocs.org/ (documentation)

Good:

• Different threading models available.
• Well documented.

Bad:

• Mirror is not in sync with source.
• Activity very low in recent years.

Ugly:

• Work on TCP support ceased in 2015 (and what is present is unusable).