v 0.8

• [maxlisp] brings the full power of the LISP programming environment into Max/MSP. Because LISP is an interpreted language, functions can be defined and sent into LISP "on the fly" to operate upon Max/MSP data. The CLISP interpreter (driven from Max/MSP) is fast enough for many extensive LISP operations.
  
  There are a number of good tutorials on Common Lisp available.
  
  
• The LISP language was designed to work upon lists of data (LISt Processing), with a rich set of built-in functions potentially useful for Max/MSP programmers. Arbitary data structures, functions, and return-types are easy to construct using [maxlisp].
  
  For example, the following function will return a random element from a list:

  (defun getel(l)
     (nth (random (length l)) l)
  )
  

  This function can be used to build a function returning a list of three random elements from three different lists:

  (defun get3el(l1 l2 l3)
  	(cons (getel l1)
  		(cons (getel l2)
  			(list (getel l3))))
  )
  

  And the delightfully insane thing about LISP is that lists can be lists of numbers, lists of strings, lists of functions, lists of lists, etc.
  
  
• A fairly common complaint among Max/MSP developers is the lack of a robust set of string-manipulation utilities. Obviously, LISP has powerful string-processing capabilities.
  
  
• Full source for both the [maxlisp] object and the modified CLISP are available for downloading (see below).

Potential "Pitfalls"  (we wouldn't want to call them "bugs", would we?)

• Because the CLISP imbedded in [maxlisp] has no direct communication with you as you write LISP code, the debugger has been disabled. If a break condition occurs that invokes the debugger, the LISP interpreter will crash along with Max/MSP.
  
  The Good News is that you can develop your LISP code in 'native' CLISP and (in most cases) import it directly into [maxlisp] without any modification. CLISP has a full-featured Common Lisp debugging environment.
  
  There are a variety of ways for sending LISP into the [maxlisp] object, including loading from files into internal scripts/buffers, sending as [maxlisp] messages, sending as [text] messages (often from the [textedit] object), etc.
  
  
• It is possible -- and in fact quite easy -- to write LISP programs that take a significant amount of time to execute. If the LISP interpreter takes too much time, Max/MSP will not be happy. This is real time, right?
  
  
• The CLISP garbage-collector can also cause problems, although primarily in loading larger programs. I have altered the gc behavior, but if it is called within a series of function definitions (for example), it will probably crash from timing or break conditions. See the "riff-o-matic" example patch for an approach to loading a larger LISP file into [maxlisp], with top-level calls to (gc).
  
  
• I'm not sure how well [maxlisp] will handle a REALLY LARGE program. "riff-o-matic" is somewhat substantial, but I'm not a truly sophisticated LISP hacker.
  
  
• I have had a few reports that when the [maxlisp] object is instantiated, the system goes into the "spinning disk of death" mode as CLISP attempts to allocate the memory it needs. I have been unable to reproduce this on any of our machines at the CMC (10.2.x and 10.3.x), but I can imagine that this is a Real Live bug. However, it's sort of hard for me to find the problem... Hopefully this won't happen to you.
  
  In the FUTURE I will probably use the new mach-o external support for integrating the CLISP code into [maxlisp]. I suspect that this may solve this problem (and clear up some of the (gc) issues as well).
  
  
• There presently is an issue with semicolons... these are used for comments in Common Lisp, but they function as a 'message' character for Max/MSP. Your results will vary, but to be safe you should probably strip semicolon comments from any LISP code coming into Max/MSP.

• maxlisp.sit   (1.1 Mbytes download/3.8 Mbytes on disk)
  v 0.8 -- 7/25/2004
  
  
  This archive will unpack into a single maxlisp folder. You will need to place it somewhere in the Max/MSP search path -- I recommend putting it in /Library/Application Support/Cycling '74 or /Library/Application Support/Cycling '74/externals
  
  [NOTE: Be sure to remove any previously-existing maxlisp folders in the Max/MSP search path]
  
  
• maxlisp-help.sit   (.1 Mbytes download/.2 Mbytes on disk)
  v 0.8 -- 7/25/2004
  
  
  The folder maxlisp-help will unpack from this archive. Place it in the Max/MSP help folder, usually the folder /Applications/MaxMSP 4.3/max-help. Inside this folder is the patcher maxlisp.help, which contains a number of [maxlisp] examples and associated documentation. Run them all, they're fun!

Source Code

• maxlisp-src.sit   (.14 Mbytes download/1.1 Mbytes on disk)
  v 0.8 -- 7/25/2004
  
  
  The source code and CodeWarrior project files for the [maxlisp] object.
  
  
• clisp2.32-src-maxmspfiles.sit   (.2 Mbytes download/124 Mbytes on disk [total CLISP])
  
  
  This archive contains the .c files I have changed from the standard CLISP distribution (I worked from v2.32). If you want to compile CLISP for use in Max/MSP, download the v2.32 package, configure and build it for Mac OSX (you will need the lispinit.mem image that you will create from this). Then unpack the files in this archive and copy them into the clisp-2.32/src directory. After this, in the clisp-2.32/src, type "make maxlisp.so" and the shared library maxlisp.so should be created.
  
  You will need to copy the file lispinit.mem into the maxlisp/maxlisp-bundle directory, and the maxlisp.so file will need to be placed into the maxlisp/maxlisp-bundle/Contents/MacOS directory.
  
  
• maxlisp-src.tar   (1.16 Mbytes download/1.5 Mbytes on disk)
  v 0.8 -- 7/25/2004
  
  
  The modified CLISP source files and maxlisp.c file (no CodeWarrior gunk) all in one handy-dandy archive.

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