[maxmsp] Reading Manuals: friendly advice - not complaint

I'm retired from Oberlin but the teacher in me still kicks in now and then.
Reading manuals is not a waste of time. There have been several recent posts
that are almost immediately answered by referring the questioner to a basic
object.  I love newbies but this makes learning max a very long and
frustrating process.

Here what I did/do...

First, read the Max/MSP manuals from cover to cover without trying to get
every detail.  This gives a general understanding of what is there.

Then, periodically, skim the manual reading only the headers.  On the right
is the name of the object and on the left is a brief description of the
object.  If the object has a graphic representation in the middle of the
header.  I do this about once a week and it takes 10-15 minutes - less each
time I skim.  I also skim the bookmarks in the PDF files stopping to read
about objects that I don't recognize. What this does is remind me of what is
in the toolkit.  When a need arises for a particular function I can usually
answer by telling myself that that function does exist.  Saves me the time
in trying to write it myself.

I do the same thing - less perfectly (right, ej, st?) - with the third party
packages that I use regularly.

Another approach is to use maxobjects.com as a thesaurus.  Try searching
"increment decrement."  I got seven items including IncDec with some
descriptions running to more than 10 lines.  It also included gak, a genetic
algorithm kit that I did not know about. So (sorry to use my professor
voice) but I learned something useful while looking for something else.  Now
THAT saves time!

Cheers
Gary Lee Nelson
Oberlin College
www.timara.oberlin.edu/GaryLeeNelson


On 3/2/08 6:54 AM, "Adam" <spondoo at hotmail.com> wrote:

> 
> hi thanks, I'm having a look at your patch but I'm not 100% sure of what is
> going on? If you have time could you explain it please!
> 
> Thanks!
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