Purr Data - Jonathan Wilkes' cross-platform Pd-l2ork version
Note to Github users: Please use our GitLab Repository.
Maintainers:
Contact: DISIS mailing list
Contents:
Pure Data (aka Pd) is a visual programming language. That means you can use it
to create software graphically by drawing diagrams instead of writing lines of
code. These diagrams show how data flows through the software, displaying on
the screen what text-based languages require you to piece together in your mind.
Pd has been designed with an emphasis on generating sound, video,
2D/3D graphics, and connecting through sensors, input devices, and MIDI as well
as OSC devices.
Pd has a special emphasis on generating audio and/or video in real time, with
low latency. Much of its design focuses on receiving, manipulating, and
delivering high-quality audio signals. Specifically, the software addresses
the problem of how to do this efficiently and reliably on general purpose
operating systems like OSX, Windows, Debian, etc.-- i.e., systems designed
mainly for multi-tasking.
Pd can easily work over local and remote networks. It can be used to integrate
wearable technology, motor systems, lighting rigs, and other equipment. Pd is
also suitable for learning basic multimedia processing and visual programming
methods, as well as for realizing complex systems for large-scale projects.
Purr-Data has the following goals:
For a more in-depth look at Purr Data for new users and developers, see:
https://agraef.github.io/purr-data-intro/Purr-Data-Intro.html
For more resources see:
https://agraef.github.io/purr-data/
For Ico Bukvic’s original Pd-l2ork website see:
http://l2ork.music.vt.edu/main/make-your-own-l2ork/software/
At the time of this writing, there are four maintained distributions of Pure
Data, two of which (Purr Data, Pd-l2ork) belong to the Pd-extended lineage.
Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OSX:
Releases are done on Albert Gräf’s GitHub mirror, which also provides a
website, wiki, additional documentation, and an up-to-date mirror of the
source code repository.
https://github.com/agraef/purr-data/releases
More Linux packages:
Packages for various Linux distributions (including Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, and
Fedora) are available through the JGU package repositories maintained by
Albert Gräf on the OBS (Open Build System). Detailed instructions can be found
here.
You can also just go to the OBS Download, pick your Linux system, and follow
the instructions.
Purr Data is usually built by just running make in the toplevel source
directory after checking out the sources from its git repository. This works
across all supported platforms (Linux, Mac and Windows at this time).
The Makefile also offers the customary targets to clean (make clean, or
make realclean to put the sources in pristine state again) and to roll a
self-contained distribution tarball (make dist), as well as some other
convenience targets (please check the comments at the beginning of the Makefile
for more information).
However, to make this work, you will most likely have to install some
prerequisites first: build tools such as a C/C++ compiler and the make
program itself, as well as dependencies, the libraries that Purr Data needs.
Detailed instructions for each of the supported platforms are given below.
Time to build: 10 minutes light install, 45 minutes to 1.5 hours full install
Hard drive space required: roughly 2.5 GB
Remember to update your packages:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
Install the dependencies (please note that the packages may be named
slightly differently for different Linux distributions; the given names are
for Debian/Ubuntu)
sudo apt-get install bison flex automake libasound2-dev \
libjack-jackd2-dev libtool libbluetooth-dev libgl1-mesa-dev \
libglu1-mesa-dev libglew-dev libmagick++-dev libftgl-dev \
libgmerlin-dev libgmerlin-avdec-dev libavifile-0.7-dev \
libmpeg3-dev libquicktime-dev libv4l-dev libraw1394-dev \
libdc1394-22-dev libfftw3-dev libvorbis-dev ladspa-sdk \
dssi-dev tap-plugins invada-studio-plugins-ladspa blepvco \
swh-plugins mcp-plugins cmt blop slv2-jack omins rev-plugins \
libslv2-dev dssi-utils vco-plugins wah-plugins fil-plugins \
mda-lv2 libmp3lame-dev libspeex-dev libgsl0-dev \
portaudio19-dev liblua5.3-dev python-dev libsmpeg0 libjpeg62-turbo \
flite1-dev libgsm1-dev libgtk2.0-dev git libstk0-dev \
libfluidsynth-dev fluid-soundfont-gm byacc \
python3-markdown
The gui toolkit may require installing the following extra dependencies
sudo apt-get install gconf2 libnss3
Clone the Purr-Data repository (2 to 10 minutes)
git clone https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/purr-data.git
Compile the code (5 minutes [light] to 1.5 hours [full])
make light (5 minutes)make all (20 minutes to 1.5 hours)make incremental (10 to 20 minutes)If you’re using an apt-based Linux distribution and you have the necessary
Debian packaging tools installed, there should now be an installer file in
the main source directory, which can be installed as usual. Otherwise, run
make install to install the software, and make uninstall to remove it
again.
Time to build: 50 minutes to 1.5 hours
Hard drive space required: roughly 2 GB
Install Homebrew (15 minutes)
(asks for password twice-- once for command line tools, once for homebrew)
Install the dependencies (10 minutes):
brew install wget
brew install autoconf
brew install automake
brew install libtool
brew install fftw
brew install python
brew install lua
brew install fluidsynth
brew install faac
brew install jpeg
brew install lame
brew install libvorbis
brew install speex
brew install gsl
brew install libquicktime
brew install sdl2
brew install pkg-config
You’ll also need to install the python markdown module to generate the
platform-specific release notes (ReadMe.html, Welcome.html):
pip3 install markdown
Note: Depending on your macOS and Xcode version, the 10 minutes
estimate for this step may be a overly optimistic. Some build dependencies
may require recompilation which can take a long time (up to several hours,
if it includes a complete build of, e.g., gcc and cmake).
Clone the Purr-Data repository (10 minutes)
git clone https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/purr-data.git
Change to the source directory
cd purr-data
Build the OSX app and the installer disk image (.dmg file) (15 minutes)
make
There should now be a .dmg file in your current directory, which lets you
install the app in the usual way
Time to build: roughly 1.5 hours-- 30 minutes of this is for Gem alone
Hard drive space required to build: rougly 2.5 GB
Important note: We recommend doing the build under your msys2 home
directory (usually /home/username in the msys2 shell). This directory should
not have any spaces in it, which would otherwise cause trouble during the
build. Never try using your Windows home directory for this purpose instead,
since it will usually contain spaces, making the build fail.
In a browser, navigate to: https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/ci-runner-setup/-/raw/master/win64_install_build_deps.ps1
Select all with <control-a>
Right-click and choose “Copy”
In the Start menu type PowerShell ISE and click the “Windows Powershell ISE” app that pops up.
In the Powershell ISE window menu, choose File -> New
In the area with the white background, right-click and choose “Paste”
Click the Run Script arrow in the toolbar (20 minutes)
If there were no errors in the script, msys2 and Inno Setup are now installed.
Open the directory “C:\msys64” and click mingw64.exe
Download the source code (3-6 minutes)
In the msys terminal window, issue the following command to create a new directory “purr-data” and clone the repository to it:
git clone https://git.purrdata.net/jwilkes/purr-data.git
Enter the source directory (less than a minute)
cd purr-data
Finally, build Purr-Data (45-80 minutes)
make
Look in the top level source directory and double-click the setup file to
start installing Purr Data on your system or run ./"setup file name" in MSYS2 shell.
It is a bad idea to break this Code of Conduct even if no one complains
about your behaviour.
Contributing is easy:
A few guidelines:
Here are some of the current tasks:
Pd is a multi-window application that consists of three parts:
All should look simple and uncluttered. Although “canvas” windows cannot
(yet) be traversed and edited using only the keyboard, all three parts of Pd
should be designed so that they can be manipulated using only the keyboard.
It should also be possible to produce sound and interact when a new user runs
program for the very first time. In every release, there should be a link at
the bottom of the Console Window to a short game written in Pd that demonstrates
one or more of the capabilities of the Pd environment. The game should be
designed to be fun outside of its efficacy as a demonstration of Pd.
Pd ships with “DejaVu Sans Mono”, which is used for the text in canvas windows.
Fonts are sized to fit the hard-coded constraints in Pd Vanilla. This way box
sizes will match as closely as possible across distributions and OSes.
These hard-coded sizes are maximum character widths and heights. No font
fits these maximums exactly, so it’s currently impossible to tell when looking
at a Pd canvas whether the objects will collide on a system using a different
font (or even a different font-rendering engine).
Dialogs and console button labels may use variable-width fonts. There is not
yet a suggested default to use for these.
The console printout area currently uses “DejaVu Sans Mono”. Errors are printed
as a link so that the user can click them to highlight the corresponded canvas
or object that triggered the error.
Nothing set in stone yet.
The following is adapted from Pd Vanilla’s original source notes. (Found
in pd/src/CHANGELOG.txt for some reason…)
Sections 2-3 below are quite old. Someone needs to check whether they even
hold true for Pd Vanilla anymore.
First, the containment tree of things
that can be sent messages (“pure data”). (note that t_object and t_text,
and t_graph and t_canvas, should be unified…)
BEFORE 0.35:
m_pd.h t_pd anything with a class
t_gobj "graphic object"
t_text text object
g_canvas.h
t_glist list of graphic objects
g_canvas.c t_canvas Pd "document"
AFTER 0.35:
m_pd.h t_pd anything with a class
t_gobj "graphic object"
t_text patchable object, AKA t_object
g_canvas.h t_glist list of graphic objects, AKA t_canvas
Other structures:
g_canvas.h t_selection -- linked list of gobjs
t_editor -- editor state, allocated for visible glists
m_imp.h t_methodentry -- method handler
t_widgetbehavior -- class-dependent editing behavior for gobjs
t_parentwidgetbehavior -- objects' behavior on parent window
t_class -- method definitions, instance size, flags, etc.
1.0 C coding style. The source should pass most “warnings” of C compilers
(-Wall on Linux, for instance-- see the makefile.) Some informalities
are intentional, for instance the loose use of function prototypes (see
below) and uncast conversions from longer to shorter numerical formats.
The code doesn’t respect “const” yet.
1.1. Prefixes in structure elements. The names of structure elements always
have a K&R-style prefix, as in ((t_atom)x)->a_type, where the a_ prefix
indicates “atom.” This is intended to enhance readability (although the
convention arose from a limitation of early C compilers.) Common prefixes are:
w_ (word)a_ (atom)s_ (symbol)ob_ (object)te_ (text object)g_ (graphical object)gl_ (glist, a list of graphical objects).Also, global symbols sometimes get prefixes, as in s_float (the symbol whose
string is “float”). Typedefs are prefixed by t_. Most private structures,
i.e., structures whose definitions appear in a “.c” file, are prefixed by x_.
1.2. Function arguments. Many functions take as their first
argument a pointer named x, which is a pointer to a structure suggested
by the function prefix; e.g., canvas_dirty(x, n) where x points to a canvas
(t_canvas *x).
1.3. Function Prototypes. Functions which are used in at least two different
files (besides where they originate) are prototyped in the appropriate include
file. Functions which are provided in one file and used in one other are
prototyped right where they are used. This is just to keep the size of the
“.h” files down for readability’s sake.
1.4. Whacko private terminology. Some terms are lifted from other historically
relevant programs, notably “ugen” (which is just a tilde object; see d_ugen.c.)
1.5. Spacing. Tabs are 8 spaces; indentation is 4 spaces. Indenting
curly brackets are by themselves on their own lines, as in:
if (x)
{
x = 0;
}
Lines should fit within 80 spaces.
2.0. Max patch-level compatibility. “Import” and “Export” functions are
provided which aspire to strict compatibility with 0.26 patches (ISPW version),
but which don’t get anywhere close to that yet. Where possible, features
appearing on the Mac will someday also be provided; for instance, the connect
message on the Mac offers segmented patch cords; these will devolve into
straight lines in Pd. Many, many UI objects in Opcode Max will not appear in
Pd, at least at first.
3.0. Compatibility with Max 0.26 “externs”-- source-level compatibility. Pd
objects follow the style of 0.26 objects as closely as possible, making
exceptions in cases where the 0.26 model is clearly deficient. These are:
3.1. Anything involving the MacIntosh “Handle” data type is changed to use
char * or void * instead.
3.2. Pd passes true single-precision floating-point arguments to methods;
Max uses double.
Typedefs are provided:
t_floatarg, t_intarg for arguments passed by the message system
t_float, t_int for the "word" union (in atoms, for example.)
3.3. Badly-named entities got name changes:
w_long --> w_int (in the "union word" structure)
3.4. Many library functions are renamed and have different arguments;
I hope to provide an include file to alias them when compiling Max externs.
4.0. Function name prefixes.
Many function names have prefixes which indicate what “package” they belong
to. The exceptions are:
typedmess, vmess, getfn, gensym (m_class.c)
getbytes, freebytes, resizebytes (m_memory.c)
post, error, bug (s_print.c)
which are all frequently called and which don’t fit into simple categories.
Important packages are:
(pd-gui:) pdgui -- everything
(pd:) pd -- functions common to all "pd" objects
obj -- fuctions common to all "patchable" objects ala Max
sys -- "system" level functions
binbuf -- functions manipulating binbufs
class -- functions manipulating classes
(other) -- functions common to the named Pd class
5.0. Source file prefixes.
PD:
s system interface
m message system
g graphics stuff
d DSP objects
x control objects
z other
PD-GUI:
gui GUI front end
if (a) {.//.Purpose: a set of functions to communicate with the gui without putting
language-specific strings (like tcl) into the C code. The new interface is a
step toward separating some (but not all) of the GUI logic out from the C code.
Of course the GUI can still be designed to parse and evaluate incoming messages
as commands. But the idiosyncracies of the GUI toolkit can be limited to
either the GUI code itself or to a small set of modular wrappers around
sys_vgui.
The public interface consists of the following:
gui_vmess(const char *msg, const char *format, ...);
where const char *format consists of zero or more of the following:
t_float)int)x123456)For some of Pd’s internals like array visualization, the message length may
vary. For these special cases, the following functions allow the developer
to iteratively build up a message to send to the GUI.
gui_start_vmess(const char *msg, const char *format, ...);
gui_start_array(); // start an array
gui_f(t_float float); // floating point array element (t_float)
gui_i(int int); // integer array element (int)
gui_s(const char *str); // c string array element
gui_end_array(); // end an array
gui_end_vmess(); // terminate the message
The above will send a well-formed message to the GUI, where the number of array
elements are limited by the amount of memory available to the GUI. Because of
the complexity of this approach, it may only be used when it is necessary to
send a variable length message to the GUI. (Some of the current code may
violate this rule, but that can be viewed as a bug which needs to get fixed.)
The array element functions gui_f, gui_i, and gui_s may only be used inside an
array. Arrays may be nested, but this adds complexity and should be avoided if
possible.
The public functions above should fit any sensible message format.
Unfortunately, Pd’s message format (FUDI) is too simplistic to handle arbitrary
c-strings and arrays, so it cannot be used here. (But if it happens to improve
in the future it should be trivial to make a wrapper for the public interface
above.)
The current wrapper was made with the assumption that there is a Javascript
Engine at the other end of the message. Messages consist of a selector,
followed by whitespace, followed by a comman-delimited list of valid Javascript
primitives (numbers, strings, and arrays). For the arrays, Javascript’s array
notation is used. This is a highly idiosyncratic, quick-and-dirty approach.
But the point is that the idiosyncracy exists in a single file of the source
code, and can be easily made more modular (or replaced entirely by something
else) without affecting any of the rest of the C code.