Hm, as I recall there are tons of hotkeys (but maybe that's just Max5)
where you can hit a single letter to create a message box, new object,
whatever. Of course, you have to click a lot too, but I'd venture
that the time taken in hitting cmd+n and typing "cycle 440" or
something then clicking twice is a negligible difference to
SinOsc.ar(440). Also, you have a ready-made GUI to control what
you're doing, and I'm sure that has instant appreciation from the
audience. Add to that the auto-complete feature, and it can't be that
much slower. Unless you've been SuperColliding for so long that you
forgot how to click.
Hm, I'm thinking about the whole exprand(10,1000)!do features of SC,
though, and it seems like there's an advantage there. I think the
real breakthrough to Max live coding will be when people start using
javascript to instantiate new Max objects and connect them
algorithmically. Partly because the visual effect would be so cool,
to see boxes flying around the screen and reproducing themselves.
Andrew
On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Chris McCormick<chris_at_mccormick.cx> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 01, 2009 at 02:11:13PM +0100, alex wrote:
>> I agree there is no line to draw between pd/max and other programming
>> languages. The only real difference is that pd and max require use of
>> the mouse.
>
> I can't speak for Max since I don't use it, but I would say that Pd is more
> fundementally limited as a general purpose programming language than, say,
> Supercollider. Although it's turing complete, it lacks a number of built-in
> programmatic utilities and datastructures which we have come to expect from
> modern programming languages, and that really limits its utility in this
> respect. For example, Pd lacks a string type, a hashmap, and it lacks the
> ability to efficiently dynamically instantiate many objects at once. This is
> one of the reasons that doing a high-degree of polyphony is difficult in Pd but
> easy in Supercollider.
>
> I think that the reason that it's still incredibly popular, and useful, is that
> lots of people don't use it as a programming language, but as a DSP designer
> and composition tool, and also because of it's noob-friendly visual interface.
> Instructing people visually is very easy.
>
> Chris.
>
> -------------------
> http://mccormick.cx
>
Received on Tue Sep 01 2009 - 14:34:16 BST