[PD] PD usability

[Adam Lindsay]

I believe Thomas Grill said this around Wed, 12 Feb 2003:

>Well, to me that sounds a bit too much like "on a mission". Why does "the
>word" PD have to be spreaded to a larger audience?

It doesn't. But I think of it as good karma. "Here, I found something I
like," I say, "maybe you will like it too."

Also/as a result... more users (to a certain point) means more feedback
and refinement. Is Pd the same system now compared to what Miller might
have come up with without community feedback, without users?

>Isn't it rather the wish for a perfect system for one's own needs, be it
>this or that one?

But I would agree more with your earlier statement:

>For me, the main reason to trust in PD is the fact that i'm silly enough to
>waste my time with developing basics (and neglecting art) and hoping that
>something really powerful can come out in the end if more people are
>thinking in the same way.

The tool is its own art... that's more interesting to me than a single
instantiation using it (sometimes sadly so).

>I'm also my conviction that a really good performance system can't be
>designed by a developer doing it for the "user" - it can only be done by
>someone who is using it on a daily basis.

I think it takes a very special user/developer/designer to simultaneously
design and use a system to the point of maturity. Yes, it could be a very
interesting, idiosyncratic system. But I think one way of thinking taken
too far creates hidden constraints in a system. (Constraints in
themselves aren't bad, but when one is blind to them, it can be a detriment.)

This has turned into an interesting thread. Cool.

adam


>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Marc Lavallée" <odradek at videotron.ca>
>To: "pd-list" <pd-list at iem.kug.ac.at>
>Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 9:01 PM
>Subject: Re: [PD] PD usability
>
>
>> Le mer 12/02/2003 à 14:12, Yves Degoyon a écrit :
>>
>> > why keeping that distinction over and over between
>> > users and programmers ???
>>
>> Because that's what users wants, and because sometimes we must deal with
>> them. I'd really like to simply ignore them, but that's not always
>> possible. They don't want help, they want fancy products, that's how
>> they've been raised. They see me as a programmer (which I'm not) because
>> I can install, configure, use, integrate and modify many types of
>> softwares on different machines. So they want me to sell them a candy
>> software they can chew on until the next software realease, or they want
>> me to help them use a candy software, which I don't want too. They are
>> totally integrated in the market economy, I'm not. Culture clash.
>>
>> > i was born a user...
>>
>> We all did, but you evolved as a programmer. 99.9% of the population
>> won't. So either we keep PD only as a research or hobbyist tool, or we
>> try to put some sugar on it to please all those "users" out there. At
>> some point they'll hopefully agree why PD (or jMax) are better tools for
>> reasons they don't want to understand now. We could even make commercial
>> products based on PD, if its license allows it, because that's the only
>> language most users really understand now. It's being done with many
>> other free softwares, so why not PD? The MSP plugin for Max is PD, so
>> that should be possible to sell a "better" PD. I don't care if they copy
>> and use the commercial version (they would for sure), because the goal
>> would be to made them switch to the free version. It would bring PD to a
>> larger audience while keeping it free. The market is certainly not too
>> small. It would give university students access to softwares they
>> usually can't afford or are reluctent to even try. The advent of the OSX
>> platform is giving us an opportunity we should consider. Maybe I simply
>> don't understand what the market economy is all about...
>>
>> --
>> Marc
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
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 Adam Lindsay                  +44(0)1524 594 537
 atl at comp.lancs.ac.uk
 http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/atl/
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