[PD] Advice on PD versions for classroom deployment

[Martin Dupras]

For several years now, I've been deploying Pd-extended in my teaching
environments, and linking to the same installers so that my students
could install exactly the same version on their own machines. (I am
perfectly aware that Pd-extended has not been maintained for some
time.)

I would welcome advice about a strategy to deploy a monolithic "same
everywhere" version of PD. Ideally, this would be with a set of
libraries that are fixed at a given version and work the same on MacOS
and Windows.

I'm leaning toward Purr-data, but as I understand it does not yet have
Gem on MacOS. Is that right?

Alternatively, would there be a way for me to install PD-vanilla and
Deken install some libraries in such a way that I can deploy a copy
with all dependencies in a single folder?

In essence, the constraints have to do with the fact that software
installations are managed by our IT team, so I need to give them a
specific set of instruction and be reasonably guaranteed that the
results will work. Neither students (nor I) can I install software on
those machines. It's also important to me to insure that students can
bring their work to and from university to home, and that the work in
progress that send me opens and works on my machine.

Any good suggestions?

Thanks,

- martin