Hi
Purr Data is behaving strangely since I recently updated it. When I first launch it, it appears fine:

But when I create a new patch, it changes to this:

Note the missing menu bar items.

Am I a newb, is this the wrong forum?

Halp

. . . but if I launch PD by loading a .pd file, the menu bar remains correct and intact - strange behaviour from the purrdata application launcher

No idea of the development/maintenance state of Purr Data, but PlugData, another monolith Pd variant is seriously actively developed. You might want to try that instead, unless you revert to Pd vanilla and install any externals you want through deken (Help->Find externals). IMO, that's the best option if you don't intend to use Pd as a VST plugin or want to compile your patches with heavy.

thanks for the advice @alexandros; I might revert to vanilla.

PlugData might be incompatible with some externals, but it supports a lot (esp. cyclone and ELSE -- I'd have dissed Pd a lot less in my early time with it if I had been using those libraries from the start). Probably better external support in the stand-alone version than in VST.

Plus side, it makes vanilla's Tcl/Tk UI look like, well, 1996. (Recent versions have autocompletion and inlet/outlet hints, and object alignment helper lines. Tbh at this point I'll use it over vanilla in most cases.)

hjh

And I'll also look at PlugData thanks

@ddw_music said:

PlugData might be incompatible with some externals

PlugData is limited to ELSE, Cyclone and Gem (this one in the current experimental release) but can load pretty much anything 'else' in the Standalone version. You'll miss only GUI externals that require porting, but there were never that many GUI externals for Pd anyway, most are abandoned and ELSE has got quite a few... so I think you'll mostly miss GUIs from ceammc, which is a recent library that offers some. Note, however, that ELSE tries to compete and offer alternatives, thinking of PlugData.

PlugData even includes 'deken' (which purr data does not), so I don't see it particularly limited for externals as if it is worth noting when compared to Purr Data, cause this sort of implies that Purr Data is not limited instead. Purr Data is limited and also suffers from using a different gui front end. GUIs from ELSE won't run, as well as GUI from other libraries that were not part of Extended (ceammc also comes to mind). In fact, even some GUI externals from Extended haven't been fully ported in Purr Data, and some libraries weren't also u[dated to the most recent versions (Cyclone and pmpd most notably). And some can't be really updated since Purr Data is not keeping up with developments from upstream (Pd Vanilla).

I get Pd owes about all of its legacy to Pd extended, but over a decade after Extended has been dead it could be nice to get over it and just forget about many externals that used to be shipped over there since they were actually abandoned and died long before Extended itself kicked the bucket. And there is a brand new world nowadays, a new post extended era with things that are worth noting.