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by iainctduncan
1733 days ago
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I'm also a programmer, and it sounds to me like you're expecting Max to be something it isn't. It's not meant to be a regular programming environment, it was created to be accessible to non-programmers. But you can extend it with C, C++, Java, Csound, Chuck, SuperCollider, etc. I will agree however that the JS implementation is neutered, probably because they have to worry about support volumes. This is one of the reasons I created Scheme For Max, which unlike the JS object, allows running in the high priority thread, does hot code reloading, and is open source and can be recompiled to your liking. Now that I have Scheme for Max, I love Max (and Max4Live) to bits, they are a fantastic environment, and I do all the coding in S7 Scheme or C. :-) https://github.com/iainctduncan/scheme-for-max |
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I didn't touch too much on the specifics in my post, but there are lots of little design oddities I ran into when doing relatively simple tasks. Like creating a multiplexer for messages: the [switch] object has an "empty" channel for input 0 (and regular inputs are 1-indexed), so you'll often need an extra +1 object for the control input. And the inputs of [switch] have no memory, so every time the control changes, you need to send a bang to resend the message in the now-active channel. Or say you want to multiplex signals. That uses the [selector~] object (why not [switch~]?), and has the same +1 issue as [switch]. But what if you want a short crossfade when switching inputs to avoid harsh transients? "Good luck" is all I'll say here.
I'm not generally trying to do anything super-complicated with Max. I have indeed used the C extension API when it makes sense (building a wavetable synth), and it was OK. I still contend that the main visual programming environment is not very good, for programmers and non-programmers alike.
...anyways, all that said, Scheme For Max looks really cool :)