[PD] Thoughts in conclusion of the 4th Pure Data

[hans w. koch]

> * Pd vs Max/MSP: My impression is that many serious users of Max/MSP
> feel that the slightly smoother user interface is worth the cost of
> the license.  An overhaul of the UI would help Pd a lot, I think.

allthough there was a fierce war raging when the "round corners" were introduced. 
and as a long time max user (and travelling both worlds) i have to say, that since max tried to widen its userbase and teamed up with ableton,
the forum (which replaced the old mailing list in that process) has become a place for frolicking noobs who can´t be troubled to read a single helpfile in their quest for the ultimate stepsequencer.
and it has taken a turn to some sort of "i paid for this and i want instant gratification". 

nothing against noobs or stepsequencers, but in my oldfashioned way, i think that pd or max have a learning curve no matter how nice they look. 
but they also do have very helpful communities, which are an essential part of the package. 
learning to operate pd includes learning to interact with its community and navigate the information floating around. this is a skill usefull everywhere.
and even max6 with its really nicely polished documentation and whatnot has its moments of utter frustration. 

that being said, clutter on the webpage still remains clutter :-)
my 2 eurocts
hans

> 
> * Pd vs Processing/openFrameworks: No conflict here.  In fact, they
> complement one another and might be taught together, now that libpd
> can be integrated into both Processing and openFrameworks.
> 
> I believe that libpd will make a big difference, in several ways.
> More than any other package I know of, it brings audio synthesis into
> the mobile realm.  Moreover, real-time audio synthesis can now be
> packaged and deployed almost like static media files, and that opens
> up possibilities that weren't available before.  Also, we're already
> seeing the emergence of alternative GUIs for Pd (in the form of Chris
> McCormick's PdDroidParty and Dan Wilcox's PdParty) that are based on
> libpd.
> 
> It's already looking promising.  If we manage to solve a few problems
> that we've been talking about on Pd-Dev (better support for building
> VST plugins and such with Pd, building a new GUI), then I'm confident
> that Pd will attract plenty of new users going forward.
> Cheers,
>     Peter