Hi everyone -

I'm thinking about building some midi filtering software for me to use when playing live / rehearsing (I need something to manage presets and change some CC numbers of live streams).

I've done something like this before, long ago in a Windows environment, but I have a couple of cool old Toughbook CF-27s that are perfect for taking out on the road (they're waterproof, indestructable etc) and they're only likely to run a lightweight distro. So far I've only managed to get Puppy Linux installed properly (XBuntu didn't find my WiFi PCMCIAA card).

My question is this -

Is there a specific distro and or development environment that would be easier & quicker to use than the others? I'm willing to build it in C, Perl or Python, whatever fits best. Ideally there would be a good MIDI API available so I don't have to do any low-end / driver level code, and I want the app to run full-screen with a big, simple, colourful display - a potential use case is me switching between presets by clicking a footpedal on the other side of the stage, so something like a big 36pt preset name should be showing on screen (I guess that means it can't run just on the command line?)

I'll probably be using my MIDISport 2x2 interface, although I'm willing to buy a specific interface if I have to.

Thanks for any advice!

Steve.