charles_2 wrote:Ah, you kids. Why I remember when we didn't even have a presentation mode, or rounded corners, or any of this newfangled nonsense. We made ugly gray piles of bricks and raw spaghetti and we liked it.
Presentation mode is a more advanced feature - it's really only necessary when your patch gets complex enough that the logical layout for data flow and the logical layout for user interface are in serious conflict. With most simple patchers it's not worth messing with, unless you're just very concerned about the way your patcher looks*, so it should be off by default. This is, after all, the way Max used to work all the time: presentation mode is a recent addition, not a required step of the process.
*Max has always been about function over form.
You exactly show where most of the opposition in this tread is coming from.
Long-time users with there notion of what max is. Max4Live is Max, but at the same time its something new in a new enviroment with new conditions and also new users with new ways of thinking and working with the possibility's of Max
I'm a designer, so I very well can say that form in it self has function. This can be narrative, suggestive and even conceptual.
The language of form is a very strong medium to bring a message across. This could be as simple as explaining what something does.
I see there are multiple types of users
New - Advanced
..|
...X
...|
Live - Max
Every user has different preferences and needs.
I notice in the discussion that for long time users its hard to understand what new or other users could want an need.
People coming from Live to MFL could want to extend there music makin' possibility's and slowly start making there own stuff.
This is a different mind set than that of a media artist wanting to create an interactively changing sensor ridden physical environment with video, audio and moving machines and maybe use live for syncing stuff and easy total recall and controller access.
And then there is the programmer that wants to work on it unique implantation dynamic binaural convolution processing.
What I also notice is that presentation mode is looked upon as not imported or even inferior, its icing on the cake.
But to some it might be very useful, cos it means its visually more clear what it is. The layout is well thought out. So that Others can easily understand what it is when you share it. And here comes something that will change with MFL, I hope. There will be a change of focus from, learn everything yourself from scratch, in an academic way to a more community driven set off of people that actively share and learn from each other by seeing stuff, copy pasting etc. and building on each others ideas and using the collective intelligence to make new and exciting stuff. Its a different mindset, a different approach.
The question is why did cycling partner with ableton, it was
1, A stable programming environment.
2, Cycling was inspired by ableton be course it makes complex stuff look and feel intuitive and easy.
This last mindset is very important especially for new users, and also for people coming from live which is what it is, intuitive.
