[PD] Abstract for ACM Multimedia submission

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

I took the text on the "about" page of pure-data.info and edited it a  
bunch to make this abstract for the ACM Multimedia conference  
submission. Any comments, feedback, etc. is appreciated:


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  Pd (aka Pure Data) is a real-time graphical programming environment  
for audio, video, and graphical processing. It is the third major  
branch of the family of graphical patcher programming languages known  
as Max (Max/FTS, ISPW Max, Max/MSP, jMax, etc.) originally developed by  
Miller Puckette at IRCAM. The core of Pd is written and maintained by  
Miller Puckette and includes the work of many developers, making the  
whole package very much a community effort.

  Pd was created to explore ideas of how to further refine the Max  
paradigm with the core ideas of allowing data to be treated in a more  
open-ended way, opening it up to applications outside of audio and  
MIDI, such as graphics and video.

  Pd is free software and can be downloaded either as an OS-specific  
package, source package, or directly from CVS. Pd was written to be  
multi-platform from the beginning and therefore is quite portable; it  
runs on Win32, IRIX, GNU/Linux, BSD, and MacOS X plattforms.

  It is easy to extend Pd by writing object classes ("externals") or  
patches ("abstractions"). The work of many developers is already  
available as part of the standard Pd packages and the Pd developer  
community is growing rapidly. Recent developments include a RRADical,  
system of patches for building performance patches; pmpd, a library of  
objects for physical modeling, and PDP, a library of objects for  
generating and processing OpenGL and video in realtime.

________________________________________________________________________ 
____

Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to  
realize his wishes.
Now that he can realize them, he must either change them, or perish.
		                                     -William Carlos Williams
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