First my apologies. I am a total pd newbie. I'm sure things I say here will sound like complaints but they are not. Even when seeming negative they are merely observations. I am immensely grateful that so many people have generously provided their time supporting this tool. I'm hoping that someone can get me over my current hump.

Basically I am missing something somewhere. I'm sure everything I need is documented somewhere but it is not clear (to me) just where. I am struggling to find basic information. The "start-here.pd" page was not useful other than to prove my installation worked. I didn't know much more when I got there than I did before I got there. It seemed more like a dead end than any kind of start. Specifically there are no pointers about where to go next. On OSX the search box in the help menu (pd extended) doesn't allow one to enter any text (I assume this is a bug?) The document "pd documentation" gives a wonderful overview but no pointers to details, i.e. no documentation of objects or even pointers to where that documentation can be found. The flossmanuals website has great lists of various objects and some great design patterns but again those lists don't have details and don't link to the detailed documentation for the listed objects.

In aid of this I have two questions, one specific and the other general.

1. Is there a detailed reference which describes the core/extended objects in detail? Actually I know there must be so the real question is where is it?

2. In the "teach a man to fish" vein how does one navigate the documentation? What is the flow? You are programming merrily away and you reach an obstacle and assume someone has already solved that. For a newbie that solution is probably an object (patch?) already distributed in the core distribution. How do you find the name of that object and the details of how to connect it in?

I'm sure the answer is right in front of my face and I will be embarrassed when it is pointed out. However this is my third try at pd over the last couple of years. Usually I flounder around for a while then give up. This is the first time I have asked for help. This time I would like to get a handle on some basics. So far in this attempt I finally managed to generate sound; a justly tuned and nicely balanced harmonic seventh chord using four osc~ objects and some simple math. It has 18 objects starting with the message box at the top to defining the root frequency as an event and dac~ at the bottom; in stereo even. It looks like a turnip and I am quite proud of it. That puts me way ahead of my previous attempts. A little help and I think I am on my way this time.

Forgive my verbosity. I am an old guy and tend to wander.

Thanks in advance,

-steve (aka zencuke)

ps.

These are good resources for beginners:

http://en.flossmanuals.net/pure-data/

http://www.pd-tutorial.com

In the Help Browser, PureData->2.control.examples is very much worth going all the way through. 3.audio.examples is also worth going through at least somewhat, but there is a lot more there and it is meant as a supplement to Miller's book.

Thank you for your quick response. Those look like good resources. I have had the floss manuals permanently open in my browser for the last couple of days and they are helpful. I particularly like the "list of objects" section.

However I am not looking for any more tutorials, getting started and introduction materials. Now I want the nitty gritty. I am looking for detailed documentation on the objects listed in the flossmanuals lists.

Here is an example of my problem. I suspect I want to use makenote. I see it in tutorials. I see it in the floss list of objects. It appears to have three inputs and two outputs. Now I am trying to find the detailed documentation of makenote, the place that describes the inputs and outputs and what they do. Where is makenote documented? Where are any of the objects documented? I'm sure it is buried somewhere in the plethora of documentation. Why is this key and central documentation so hard to find?

Right-click on an object and select "help" from the popup menu. That will bring up the help patch for that specific object.