Similarities To Max
Pure Data and Max are both arguably examples of dataflow programming languages. In such languages, functions or “objects” are linked or “patched” together in a graphical environment which models the flow of the control and audio. Unlike the original version of Max, however, Pd was always designed to do control-rate and audio processing on the host central processing unit (CPU), rather than offloading the sound synthesis and signal processing to a digital signal processor (DSP) board (such as the Ariel ISPW which was used for Max/FTS). Pd code forms the basis of David Zicarelli's MSP extensions to the Max language to do software audio processing.
Like Max, Pd has a modular code base of externals or objects which are used as building blocks for programs written in the software. This makes the program arbitrarily extensible through a public API, and encourages developers to add their own control and audio routines, in the programming languages C, or with the help of other externals, in Python, Scheme, Lua, Tcl, and many others. However, Pd is also a programming language. Modular, reusable units of code written natively in Pd, called “patches” or “abstractions”, are used as standalone programs and freely shared among the Pd user community, and no other programming skill is required to use Pd effectively.
Read more about this topic: Pure Data
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