[PD] PD usability

[martin pi]

some points to this - or "why is pd really not
friendly to the user"

1. it has modes (as opposed to modeless
environments (this is why people do not like vi,
too). modes are hard to understand - especially
for mac people since the mac interface is
traditionally modeless

2. it does not support the usual features like
drag and drop, cut & paste (in message boxes for
example) thus it is inconsistent (and that is the
main point why people from the commercial side
have problems with free software)

3. it does not have a clear rythm of behaviour -
sometimes it is fast as light, sometimes just
stuck. most times inbetween. worst when audio
processing is on (and realtime on my comp).

yet it is mostly verb-noun based thus good in the
general flow

so much for the user interface. have to say that i
really like it by the way.

martin




On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 eh at ixi-software.net wrote:

> hi 
> 
> i have been involved lately in software usability stuff and i don't really 
> think PD is bad at all. there are some issues about the installation and  
> the externals. sometimes its difficult to know how to make them work.  
> etc... but they are minor if you think that you are getting it for FREE.
> the interface of PD and PD environment are ok and they are very 
> logical and consistent in terms of usability. I would say that the 
> interface is specially "transparent" compare to many other 
> environments or programs.
> 
> this is my opinion, and i am not a big PD user at all.
> if he would be helping maybe PD would be better.
> 
> 
> > I had a strange conversation yesterday with a teacher who basically said
> > that free software sucks because of usability issues, and that he'll
> > refuse to teach Pure Data because Max is vastly superior at the
> > cognitive level. The segmented patch cord functionnality seems to be of
> > major importance to him. He also seemed quite revolted by the
> > installation process of the OSX version. So to him, the whole idea of
> > free software is simply irrelevent. This man (who call himself an
> > anarchist, go figure) is telling all those young people that they must
> > pay a fortune to get a fancy Mac and a Max/MSP/Jitter licence.
> > 
> > I'm the only one in my community to use free software for multimedia
> > production. I'd really like my people to use free software, but they
> > simply don't want to, because the very second they are in touch with "no
> > so easy to use" softwares, they almost puke. How could we make PD better
> > so these people would agree using free software? I stopped using Max
> > because of its restrictive license, and I prefer PD to jMax because it's
> > lighter and faster. 
> > 
> > Most of us don't need fancy segmented patch cords and graphical objects
> > with a puffy look, but can we focus a little bit on the graphical
> > interface issues? I need those Mac addicts to use PD. I like being in
> > touch with people on this list, but I also need real people (those I get
> > in touch with everyday) to use the same tools than me.
> > 
> > --
> > Marc
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > PD-list mailing list
> > PD-list at iem.kug.ac.at
> > http://iem.kug.ac.at/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pd-list
> 
> 
> 
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> 






       
       		martin pi

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