Hi guys,

When I open pd-extended 0.40.3 under OS X 10.5.5 Gem is not immediately available. Is there anything I need to do to have Gem loaded by default?

Bizarrely, I have been able to convince it to load Gem by trying to create a [gem] object (not a real object) which then seems to cause the libraries to load so that real Gem objects can be loaded.

I'm using Gem to create a simple tool for displaying images of musical notation with page turns controlled by midi. The program is working really well so once I get Gem loading automatically and some kinks sorted out I hope to publish the code for everybody to enjoy!

--Charles Martin.
www.charlesmartin.com.au
cmpercussion.blogspot.com

That sounds real cool, charlesm! Maybe try adding:

/usr/lib/pd/extra/Gem

in your path. Oh mac... someone must know...

maybe these guys

You should be able to add gem to your startup options (file-preferences-startup...). Add a new binary here, if GEM is not on the list. If you have a folder with individual binaries of gem objects in your PD.app, add that folder to the paths dialog in a similar fashion.

Thanks nestor, that was the solution. I needed to add:

/Applications/Pd-extended.app/Contents/Resources/extra/Gem/Gem

to the startup options. Gem now loads just fine. As an aside, another way to load gem is to create the object [Gem] in a patch.

I have to say that I was puzzled that I hadn't really found this stuff documented anywhere! In the end, I found it written in Readme.1st of the Gem distribution. I guess I was a fool not to read it first. The relevant lines were:

(quote)
this Gem.d_fat is the Gem-binary for macOS-X (Universal Binary)

in order to use it, put the Gem/-directory into a place where pd can find it:
either put it in pd's extra/ directory, or add the full path of the Gem/
directory to the search-paths of Pd

then start Pd and load Gem:

• either create an object [Gem]
• or add it to the startup-libraries (via the Pd->Settings->Startup menu) and
  restart

you should get a splash-screen on the Pd-console telling you that Gem has
successfully been loaded.

then try the help-patches (in the Gem/ folder)
and the example-patches (in this directory)
(end quote)

alright - I tried installing the same version of pd-extended on a power-pc machine and all of the paths and startup options were already filled in! Maybe something is wrong with the pd-extended intel installer? or my machine?

who knows.

Hi everybody,
I'm having some issues getting GEM going in Pd version 0.40.3-extended on an iBook G4 running Tiger. GEM doesn't load by default, and checking Preferences->Path I see that its not included nor is it included in Preferences->Startup. It seemed pretty straightforward... I need to add it to Preferences->Path, however the "Add a New Path" dialog that pops up doesn't allow me to browse into Application packages and unfortunately it looks like GEM resides in:

/Applications/Pd-extended.app/Contents/Resources/extra

and i just can't get there using the file browser dialog. I'm kinda new to Macintosh so maybe there's a secret key combo I can use to access directories inside app packages from the path/file select dialog??

Well, that didn't stop me, i figured the paths and startup options must be just sitting around in a plain text file in the Pd-extended.app directory... seems like I could just edit by hand and type in the required path. But after a few small adventures with grep in the terminal I turn up nothing.

Anyway, any assistance would be great!

--Isaac Turner--