[PD] Pd vs. MAX

[Thomas Grill]

Hi,
i've been using Max/MSP and PD for quite a while now and i see the following
points:

Max:
- very good documentation and tutorials
- good patcher system which lets you create real user interfaces
- good configurable audio system with low latency
- OS9 version is quite unstable (or is (was!) it OS9?), OSX version is quite
ok.
- makes use of AltiVec on PPC
- Jitter is great

PD:
- it's free and open source
- very low latency for linux
- audio and midi system is often complicated to configure
- really bad user interface and documentation

The extendibility is in principle the same, although Max has more (but
mostly commercial) packages.
The support (due to the mailing lists) is equally good.

jMax has not had much success as it has been unstable and very sluggish due
to its Java user interface. Version 4 has a different API which makes all
externals written for older versions incompatible. However, it seems that
the new jMax API is quite well-designed and can make use of multiple
processors.

best greetings,
Thomas


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J. Scott Hildebrand" <jshildebrand at ucdavis.edu>
To: <pd-list at iem.kug.ac.at>
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 10:43 PM
Subject: [PD] Pd vs. MAX


>
>      right now i'm writing a report on the effectiveness of Pd for use in
> spatial audio. i'm also somewhat comparing it to its competition; csound,
> reaktor, and of course the various versions of MAX. it's been very hard
> trying to understand the current state of things, for example which is
> more widely used and has more people working on it?
>
>      i've read a lot about the various incarnations of MAX including jMAX,
> MAX/MSP, Pd, and all the old stuff like MAX/Opcode, MAX/FTS, Patcher, ISPW
> stuff, etc.
>
>      have any of you tried several different things and have any useful
> comparison info? how are the expansions in jMAX and MAX/MSP comparable to
> the expansions in Pd like GEM and GriPD? thanks,
>
> scott
>
>
>
>
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