[PD] Optimisation - Max & PD

[Michal Seta]

Hello,

Since you're on XP and you can run Max4.6, Max5 and Pd, benchmark the
3 with some kind of identical code and make your decision...  In
general I found pd more efficient and more reliable than Max but I
usually run it on Linux (and Max doesn't even run on Linux) but the
last time I run such benchmark was about 8 years ago.  FWIW, last year
I was involved in a project for which Max was employed and it took a
lot of jumping through various hoops to get a reliable timing.   But
on the other hand, I would be jumping through different set of hoops
in order to achieve something else in another part of the code if I
were doing it in pd.

That said, there are certain "features" of Max that make programming a
little more pleasant and possibly a little higher-level but comparing
Pd and Max based on "user experience" is highly subjective and
possibly irrelevant.

My demo versions of Max have expired long ago so I cannot do any
benchmark patching but if anyone cares to develop some benchmark I
will gladly run it on Max5 runtime, Max4.6 runtime, Max 4.5.5 runtime
(note that runtimes are usually slightly more efficient, in my
experience) and pd in windows XP and pd in linux (ubuntu 8.10 or even
pure:dyne). All this on the same machine: 1.8GHz Intel Core Duo.

However, all this boils down to the fact that essentially any project
can be done with either.  It's just that certain programming problems
are easier or more difficult to deal with using one or the other.  I
do not think that you will find major differences in performance (and
yes, Max GUI also eats up CPU if overused!) it is just a matter of
preferring one set of quirks to the other in addition to matter such
as price tags and philosophical and or social affiliation which are
relevant to some people these days.

Cheers

./MiS

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Daniel Bennett
<pavementsands at googlemail.com> wrote:
> There's been a lot of talk here of late about PD not being terribly well
> optimised in lots of ways - GUI drawing, and potentially other areas. I'd
> always assumed (naively) that being less impressive to look at, PD was
> probably quicker (in equivalent circumstances) than MAX.
>
> As such, (and not having much cash for high powered PCs or software) when I
> came to pick between MAX and PD, I picked PD.
> Was I wrong in assuming that PD runs more efficiently than MAX (specifically
> on XP)? I'm not sure I can afford MAX anyway, so the question is pretty much
> academic, but I'm interested to know peoples' thoughts on the matter.
> Especially as I've recently come up against PD's issues with Midi inputs on
> XP (screws my shutdown every time I try to use midi inputs).
> Ta
> Dan
> --
> Geometer Magazine
> http://geometer.org.uk
>
>
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-- 
./MiS
514-344-0726
http://www.creazone.ca