Max/MSP

[Gregory Taylor <gtaylor@xxxxxxxx>]

I have probably lost my mantle as "worst and most clueless C programmer
on the planet" to someone more deserving [ignorance takes real time and
investment, however easy the web has made it to cut and paste received
opinion]. But I learned Max before I knew much of any C at all, and had
no problem with it, with the possible point that, one day, I found myself
wondering out loud how you did something in Max that you did in C
[loops, for example]. I can think of any number of people who don't write
in C who've done performances which really moved or astounded me
using Max/MSP. I think it's a "temperment" thing; it's a tool which makes
terrific tool for some people, and none at all for others. It works for me.
At any rate, you can just download the stuff and all the documents and
poke at it for 30 days and decide for youself.

And I can also name you any number of persons who started with Max/MSP
and now write their own C code, having reached the point there there was
something they wished to do that the basic set and extended user base
could not help 'em with.

Its extensibility and user base has worked well in that regard. When I
started to miss the LISP stuff I used to do while I was doing my Sonology
thang, I just rooted around for some list-processing externals [Peter Elsea
at UC-Santa Cruz has produced a very nice set]. Wacom table stuff?
same deal. While I've been working on the documentation for the new
versions of Max/MSP, it occurred to me that maybe it'd be an interesting
project to find something I want bad enough to actually start writing my
own external objects. I haven't found anything that's not been tackled.

Actually, it'a just a little difficult to imagine the shape of my life in the
near term, now that Max4/MSP2 is out in the world. I'm sure I'll have
some documentation infelicities to attend to and some low-level documentation
housekeeping for the upcoming Windows port launch [jhno is right - Max4/MSP2
is the thing that the Windows port is based on, so the work resumes in earnest now
that it's done], but the future is rife with possibilities.

NOTE: This also means that, like jhno, I consult for the shadowy mind-control
cult. I used their stuff LONG before I started doing that, but better blatant
than latent.

I'm looking forward to having those nice Fällt discs on heavy rotation in
the office, for one. Steady on, Chris; I can wait for a bit, if it means that
you can see your wife and children. Honest.
_
knowledge is not enough/science is not enough/
love is dreaming/this equation/Gregory Taylor/
WORT-FM 89.9/Madison, WI/ http://www.rtqe.net/