[PD] jMax Phoenix

[Bernardo Barros]

the java gui for supercollider (swingosc) is not very efficient
performance-wise. It makes the cpu go from 8 to 25%...
The new Qt (gui toolkit with c++ code) is incredibly more efficient
and much more pleasant to the eyes, at least on gnu/linux.

I also can't understand a very good reason to start such a similar
application all over (jmax), why not just improve what is already
working (pd) ??

2010/9/23 ydegoyon at gmail.com <ydegoyon at gmail.com>:
> ola,
>
> i did try to install jmax sometimes ago...
> but i never used it,
> the reason being java is totally unfit
> for real-time apps and fast response....
>
> have the same problem now with webcamstudio..
>
> but suerte!,
> sevy
>
> Maurizio De Cecco wrote:
>>
>> Hallo,
>>
>> my name is Maurizio De Cecco, and i am the maintainer and developper of
>> the jMax Phoenix project,
>> a kind of cousin of Puredata. Having release a new beta for jMax (on Linux
>> and Mac OS X), and after
>> discussing with Miller Puckette, i think the members of this list may be
>> interested in knowing more
>> about the project, and may be take a look.
>>
>> A bit of history: i worked in Ircam in the 90s, where i was lucky enough
>> to work with Miller Puckette
>> on Max/ISPW and following versions; i then worked on jMax, that was
>> intended to be a 'next generation'
>> Max for the Ircam projects; jMax was used in a few large productions; i
>> left in 99 for pursing other
>> interest (Linux Mandrake, at that time :), and forgot for a while about
>> jMax.
>>
>> In the meanwhile, jMax was put under a GPL licence, and after a couple of
>> years Ircam stopped its development
>> (don't ask me why, i wasn't there).
>>
>> In 2008 i was getting severely bored: server side Java, quality indicators
>> and software engineering was my daily bread, and no code to write; so, to
>> keep my developer mind healthy, i took up the development
>> of jMax, starting from the last release i worked on.
>>
>> Given the fact that jMax slept a few years, it cannot compete with
>> puredata in terms of available libraries,
>> patches, and in general maturity of the solution.
>>
>> But it have its own peculiarity, a number of different ideas, and having a
>> code base but no users (yet, i hope:)
>> allows some bold design decision to be taken; think of jMax Phoenix as a
>> kind of research project in same family where Puredata is.
>>
>> Describing the differences between jMax and Puredata would be long,
>> because it would need to go back
>> to the original developments; to be very synthetic i would resume in the
>> following:
>>
>> 1) Architecture: the jMax user interface run on a different process, and
>> it written in Java.
>>
>> 2) APIs are completely different, but see below.
>>
>> 3) The Object Set is reduced to the old ISPW object set; jMax can also
>> transparently include LADSPA plugins as objects; finally, i developped
>> compatibility layer (to be completed) that allows to recompile simple pd
>> objects for jMax, and possibly to load pd abstractions.
>>
>> 4) User Interface: there is a lot of work going on in the UI, that allows,
>> between other, the used of a single window IDE style interface.
>>
>> 5) Packaging and configuration: jMax Phoenix support the packaging
>> of complex libraries and applications in a single file, and even
>> automatically grab libraries from the internet.
>>
>> 6) The language: jMax support the use of expressions in object definition,
>> like in | int ( 10 + $foo) | so that objects in abstractions can be
>> parametrised with respect to the arguments.
>>
>> 7) Hopefully in between 6 month and a year: an optimising dsp compiler
>> and engine able to run a patch in parallel on multiple core (where
>> multiple means around 8).
>>
>> For anybody more interested, the project site is
>> http://www.jmax-phoenix.org/, and the
>> binaries and sources can be loaded from the project sourceforge site,
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/jmax-phoenix/
>>
>> For your information, i include at the end of the mail the formal announce
>> of the 0.6 beta release; it does not mention the Max OS X version, that was
>> not ready at the time.
>>
>> Maurizio
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> After many month of development, we are proud to announce the version 0.6
>> beta of jMax Phoenix.
>>
>> The major highlights for this version are:
>> - A first version of the puredata source compatibility kit, including the
>> build system and a full example of recompiled object library.
>> - A large set of usability bug fixed; all the bugs preventing a smooth
>> work flow have been fixed.
>> - Error handling improvements: most of the bugs and configuration errors
>> now results in error messages, and not unexplained freezes.
>> - A set of examples and tutorials has been recovered from old ISPW
>> archives; they are not updated to include all the major jMax
>> functionalities, but it is better than nothing.
>>
>> Full release notes are available in the release notes section of the
>> projet site.
>>
>> This release has been tested on Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio 10.04, Debian 5,
>> Fedora 13 and Mandriva Spring 2010; check the installation
>> instruction on the projet site for specific caveats for Debian and Fedora.
>>
>> The Puredata compatibility sub-project has been *very* time consuming; in
>> order to better manage my scarce time resources,
>> we need some user feedback (and possibly help) to be able to evaluate the
>> actual interest of pursuing this development direction.
>>
>> For more information and download and installation instructions go to
>> http://www.jmax-phoenix.org/.
>>
>> For contacting the project team: contact at jmax-phoenix.org
>>
>> The jMax Phoenix team
>>
>> __________
>> Maurizio De Cecco -
>> Music: http://www.myspace.com/mauriziodececco
>> Blog: http://maurizio.dececco.name/
>> Software: http://www.jmax-phoenix.org/
>>
>>
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>
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