pure-data VS wefx

Report bugs on the pd github https://github.com/pure-data/pure-data

You might be interested in clicking through the puredata source code.

https://github.com/pure-data/pure-data

> The other advantage is because these things were implemented in the 80s

Pd was developed in the mid 90s

> they are very computationally efficient

Not as efficient as it could be, though. For example, instead of proper SIMD instructions, the DSP perform routines only use manual loop unrolling, praying that the compiler will auto-vectorize it.

Finally, everything is single-threaded, leaving lots of performance on the table. FWIW, I have a PR for an asynchronous task API (https://github.com/pure-data/pure-data/pull/1357) and also a branch for multi-threaded DSP (https://github.com/Spacechild1/pure-data/tree/multi-threadin...).

> Any criticism or unwelcome suggestions are treated as an insult to Miller Puckette and the proponent is attacked, ignored, or advised to implement it themselves (ie to go away and not come back).

I don't think this holds for the general case, but there a certainly a few users caught up in Stockholm Syndrome :-) I can assure you that the developer team (which I am a part of) is very well aware of Pd's limitations and problems. Pd has seen quite significant UX improvements over the last few years, but the pace of development is very slow. Anyway, if you have specific criticism, suggestions or feature requests, feel free to open a ticket on GitHub: https://github.com/pure-data/pure-data.

As a side note, the minimalistic GUI itself won't change since it is an intentional design decision by Miller, but there is some effort to abstract the core/GUI communication to allow alternative GUI implementations. (Personally, I really dislike the current Tcl/Tk GUI - not because it's minimalistic, but because it's slow and buggy.)

> and idiosyncratic terminology (eg PD refers to module connectors as 'patch cords' just like on an analog modular synthesizer or mixer, but what synth people commonly call a pulse or a trigger is a 'bang' in PD).

Pd's 'bang' belongs to the control/event domain, you can't really compare it to trigger/pulse in modular synthesizers. (FWIW, there are several Pd externals that implement audio-rate triggers.)

> You can make it do anything, but unless you already have a very specific goals you will spend most of the time reinventing wheels in parameter space.

That's a fair point. It's important for people to understand that Pd vanilla is really a programming environment with only a minimal set of built-in objects that allow you to build higher-level abstractions. You definitely need a set of "abstractions" or libraries to be productive. Fortunately, there are many existing Pd libraries and they can be easily installed with Pd's package manager "Deken". The most extensive one is "ELSE" with nearly 500 objects, containing everything from band-limited ocillators, filters, sequencers, GUIs, etc. Personally, I have my own collection of abstractions that I made over the last years.

That being said, I would agree that you should always pick the right tool for the job. Just as you wouldn't write your website in C, you wouldn't pick Pd for typical EDM stuff (unless you have a very good reason). But for prototyping and experimental electronics it's a fantastic tool, I think.

I'm particularly curious on what parts cheerp adds to their clang+llvm base. Presumably it's something like the C standard target library for WASM/JS?

For reference, here's examples of what you could do with the baseline clang with wasm (but not JS?) [1] [2] [3], referenced from a similar thread on HN.

[1] https://github.com/ern0/howto-wasm-minimal

[2] https://github.com/robrohan/wefx

[3] https://github.com/PetterS/clang-wasm

I've used a similar pipeline to create "books for code and infrastructure". A/k/a coding in a somewhat literate programming style. Similar to what is described here:

gemini://gemini.robrohan.com/2022-04-23-narrative-programming.md

With output that looks similar to this: https://github.com/robrohan/wefx/blob/main/docs/manual.pdf

Using a github action like this: https://github.com/robrohan/wefx/blob/main/.github/workflows...

(most of the code borrowed from those projects)

You can do it with just plain markdown files and use directories for chapters / organization if you're just going for prose.

I've thought about using the process to try to make open textbooks where you can mix and match chapters, but I don't have any experience in that field.

Anyway, can confirm, it's an incredibly useful process.

Not trying to steal your thunder, but here is another nostdlib clang -> wasm example with malloc, a few math functions, rand, and writing to a canvas doing animation.

=> https://github.com/robrohan/wefx

I haven’t seen this version mentioned in the thread - if you don’t need a lot of precision, here is a simple 4 line version[1] and here’s how it works[2].

Not sure who initially came up with it.

[1] https://github.com/robrohan/wefx/blob/1a918cc2d5ad87402a3830...

[2] https://www.desmos.com/calculator/lo7cf60mjz