[PD] PD usability

[Matthew Nish-Lapidus]

i don't know if PDF is the best solution.. the best thing about good doc
patches is that they're usable patches.. you can just copy parts of them to
save time.

matt.


----- Original Message -----
From: "mark" <mark at junklight.com>
To: "'Matthew Nish-Lapidus'" <mattn-l at rogers.com>; "'pd-list'"
<pd-list at iem.kug.ac.at>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 6:21 PM
Subject: RE: [PD] PD usability


Indeed - this is something annoying me to. I want a reference
manual. I'm working on two new externals and then I am going
to look into this. There must be a way to autogenerate either
the patches or reference pages. My ideal would be to take the
patches and autocompile them into a PDF.

I will be reopening this debate in a week or two when I am ready
to do something about it.

cheers

mark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pd-list-admin at iem.kug.ac.at
> [mailto:pd-list-admin at iem.kug.ac.at] On Behalf Of Matthew Nish-Lapidus
> Sent: 12 February 2003 23:13
> To: 'pd-list'
> Subject: Re: [PD] PD usability
>
>
> i would have to say the biggest issue that i have with PD is
> docs.  MAX's help files are amazing.. if PD had help files
> like that there would be a lot less difference between PD and
> MAX in the learning phase.
>
> matt.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "mark" <mark at junklight.com>
> To: "'Marc Lavallée'" <odradek at videotron.ca>; "'pd-list'"
> <pd-list at iem.kug.ac.at>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 5:59 PM
> Subject: RE: [PD] PD usability
>
>
> If it where me that wanted to make PD more "producty"
> (technical term that :-) - and its not -  I already have
> enough joy with this at work with users/support/testing/load
> testing/a development team/a dept. head/etc. - Then I would
> try to establish a small group of volunteers to do the work.
> I am sure the rest of the community would support such an
> effort if it didn't mean much work on their part.
>
> The key areas I see as being vital are;
>
> installer - not always an easy job 'cos of the platform thing
> (and the quality of the tools). As a guide I have had a team
> member put in about 6 man months over the last two years on
> our installer.
>
> Config - midi/audio selection would have to be a preferences
> dialog for the more casual user. I guess this would have
> implications on how PD starts up too.
>
> GUI - you can argue its fine until you are blue in the face -
> people are used to and expect pretty interfaces - if you want
> minimalist/functional then it needs to be *designer*
> minimalist functional (think Peter Saville/factory records).
> Its just the way it goes.
>
> Docs - there needs to be a reference manual. Again you can
> argue about it all you like - not having one means that the
> beginner has to do a lot more work to get into the product.
>
> Support - who is going to provide support to people. What
> happens when the mailing list is full of people going - "it
> does't work on my pc..why?" or "I NEED feature X..why can't
> you make it do that"
>
> Don't get me wrong - PD is just great as it is as far as I am
> concerned
> - what
> I am talking about is making it accessible to a wider
> audience. It will grow larger as time goes by and by having a
> high level of knowledge needed for entry we make life easier
> for ourselves.
>
> Again - not trying to pour water on ideas but if you want to
> make PD accessible to a wider audience you need to consider
> what is involved
>
> cheers
>
> mark
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: pd-list-admin at iem.kug.ac.at
[mailto:pd-list-admin at iem.kug.ac.at]
> On Behalf Of Marc Lavallée
> Sent: 12 February 2003 22:37
> To: 'pd-list'
> Subject: RE: [PD] PD usability
>
>
> Le mer 12/02/2003 à 16:59, mark a écrit :
>
> > Sorry to be blunt about this but I did say I had my day job hat on.
> > :-)
>
> I actually resigned from a well paid job in a university center
> because I was unable to bring artists to use free software and be more

> responsible. I had to manage a bunch of projects, buy computers and
> softwares, and program "art". It was a stupid and impossible mandate,
> because artists (especially students) must do their own stuff, not
> always rely on programmers to hold the mouse for them. Of course,
> most artists were asking for Macs/Max/MSP/Jitter, leaving
> little money for anything else, including humain brain juice.
>
> 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.
>
> --
> Marc
>
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