[PD] PD usability

[Matthew Allen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marc Lavallée [mailto:odradek at videotron.ca]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 2:37 PM
> To: 'pd-list'
> Subject: RE: [PD] PD usability
> 
> So for me, a "better" PD would have been cool. I won't accept such a job
> unless artists agrees to change their tools and their attitude toward
> technology. But we need to help them a little bit, or I might never work
> with them again.


Zoinks, Obviously I wasn't there, but this sounds more to me like a lack of
'educating' the end user as to what the options are, and how if you choose
option 'a (max)' you may miss out on important things like being able to
afford lab time.

Marc, Don't give up hope. There are plenty of experienced artists out there
who are more than willing to get our hands dirty. I often go back and forth
about this issue. There are times where I just want to get a track done, and
I don't want to spend the effort creating an environment (abstraction in
this case) that would allow me to do it. I want the immediate return. But I
also have enough experience to know that if I put the time up front to
really bang on something I will get months (if not years in some cases) of
positive return for it. 

I don't want this thread turning into an artist v. programmer thread. The
one thing that has always impressed me the most about the PD community is
the fact that almost every site I go to, to download an external, has music
on it created by the people who wrote the external. This is priceless.
Having done visual art now in the game industry for over 8 years I have come
to truly appreciate the Engineer who has a sense of visual flair, and is
willing to get his/her hands dirty doing 'art', just like I know my
understanding of technology (and limited coding/scripting skills) has made
many an engineer smile.
m.