Re: Coding vs patching: would you eat soup with a fork?

> Dear list,
> Would you give someone a fork to eat soup? Sorry about the cheap
> analogy, but it breaks my heart every time I think that 75% of the
> theoretical knowledge I have received in electronic music has been
> using Max/MSP. Most of the young and more inexperienced guys at school
> have a hard time grasping the concepts of electronic music. I am
> totally convinced that if they used SC they would learn much faster.
> Can anybody explain to my why the myth that coding is hard and that
> having a screen full of spaghetti makes it easier to program is still
> in vogue? I really don't get it. I mean, really. Actually I do, or I
> think I do. When the beginning electronic music student sees a Max
> patch, he only sees the end result, that is, a nice GUI, and thinks
> WOW, max looks neat. They never think that, under that nice looking
> main patch is hidden a maze of subpatches, until they start patching
> themselves. I am sure that, eventually along the line, every Max user
> gets the "god there are so many cables and windows open, maybe text
> would actually be better" - kind of feeling. I did, only it took me
> about a week.
> I am quite known among my friends in the conservatory for my strong
> feelings about SC, and my increasing unease every time a teacher tries
> to shove Max down our throats, clogging the screen with nonsense to do
> something that would take 1 line in SC.
> Some people might argue it is a matter of personal preference. Well,
> let me get intransigent: it is not. Ruby vs Python is a valid dilemma.
> Coding vs dragging is not. Just look around. Do you know any (non
> musical) programmers? What do they use? Little boxes and cables? Ask
> any of them whether they think it would be better to program in that
> way and you're likely to get a laugh. Of course many people have done
> great programming with Max. I once ate a soup with a fork too. Hey,
> even Miller Puckette said that Max was not thought out to program
> with, just to use as patcher for C modules.
> I wanted to ask whether anyone knows of a text somewhere that exposes
> what I just said in more objective, less altered terms? If not, I
> would like to know the opinion of the forum. I promise to collect the
> strongest points, print them and post them all over town.
>
> Sorry about the rant, but I cannot stand bad reasoning. I will have my
> pill now.
>
> Cheers
> Uri
>
> _______________________________________________
> sc-users mailing list
>
> info (subscription, etc.):
> http://www.beast.bham.ac.uk/research/sc_mailing_lists.shtml
> archive: http://www.listarc.bham.ac.uk/marchives/sc-users/
> search: http://www.listarc.bham.ac.uk/lists/sc-users/search/
>