As far as I understand MAX is a modul based programming language that is written in C. Because of that it is possible to programm new moduls that are not part of the original MAX and import them into MAX as so called externals. Because these externals are written in C I can only use externals within my MAX that are compiled for my platform (Windows, OS9 or OSX) - and I even might need to install extra runtime data (like fftw3.dll for windows) to use them.
M4L on the other hand is exactly like MAX but is only capable of running within Ableton Live.
That leaves me with some questions:
1.) Are my assumptions correct?
If they are ...
2.) Can I run any external for MAX within M4L that is compiled for my operating system?
3.) Is it further correct that I can only use M4L patches that are done on my operating system. So that I could not use a MAC M4L patch when I am running Live/M4L on Windows? Or depends that if/or what externals are used within a patch?
4.) If I could use externals that are written for Windows (and I am on Windows - as you might have guessed) - than I have another question: I can import the "bonk~" external (http://crca.ucsd.edu/~tapel/software.html) but M4L crashes when I try to open the help file. I tried with fiddle~ and it's helpfile - that worked just fine.
Thank you for your patience with a noob ... !
