What's the embedded scripting language of choice for PD, if there is one? I find more references to Python than anything else. Is anyone using Python in PD? Is the implementation practical / usable?

I'm looking to migrate to PD from Reaktor for better programmability / scriptability and I'm a little disappointed that there doesn't seem to be something in the standard package for this. I'd rather not get into building dataflow structures to traverse arrays - it reminds me too much of Reaktor, where it's like you're programming by hardwiring circuits.

(please excuse the user name. It's not arrogance - it's my initials and I post as ~Pd~ on other forums. :D)

Hello ~pd~ welcome,

Yes, Python works rather nicely via Thomas Grills PyExt object. There are also several other cool language interfaces in the pipeline or ready to use, Flext is a nice external framework if you prefer C++, there's a FAUST template that works nicely, a Lua scripting external and a MySQLite database object in the works. I think you'll find Pd gives you a lot of scope for interpreted script based work over Reaktor. If you want expert advice on these I would join the main pd-list or watch pd-dev to keep up to date on developments.

Andy

Thanks, Obi. I think I'll give Python in PD a shot first, since I already know it, but this Lua language sounds really intriguing. This is the first I've heard of it.

Cheers!

It looks like pyext will not load in Leopard...is there a way around this? Does Pd support javascript? Is anyone scripting Pd in Leopard? Any help would be appreciated, I'm totally new to Pd.

Thanks!!!

sorry for a topic diversion, ignore me if you want...

but what sort of things can you do with this scripting? i'd learn lua if i thought it was going to be useful in my everyday music making, but i really don't know of any benefits i would get from it.

any enlightenment will be thankfully received.

I have been a programmer for a pretty long time...I just think better in script/OO as opposed to connecting wires to objects (something fairly new to my brain). For me, I can get some things done faster by writing a script.

Scripting is powerful and each person will find their own special uses, but for me two things come to mind....

Programmatic scores that would need a very big list passing through a dataflow many times, or operating on multiple tables. Although this is what Pd datastructures are for, in most languages you have much better data-structure accesors and sort routines etc.

ii) Interfacing to other things. Having glue code is really useful. Where not everything has an OSC or MIDI interface you can call an external program (obviously [shell] can do this but it's rather poor) and get the results.