[PD] getting started

[Alex from idoia]

Hello there,
I am getting step by step into PD and have a couple of newbie questions
before getting started:
I have read the Miller' s doc but could not find any 'reference' doc in
which all available objects are explained. Maybe there is none ? also, as I
come from Max I wonder to know if all object in Max work in PD.
At last, I would like to realise a very simple patch that record audio from
my sound card into a aiff format (I am on Mac) but using a midi click set by
the user to start and stop the recording( like any basic sequencer program),
the way I can do some overdubbing on top later on. Is there already some
patches that could give me an idea of how to start ?
Thanks a lot for your time.
Alex