Installing PureData

Once upon a very long time ago, we installed a product called PureData Extended, which was a compilation of the original version of PureData (called Pd Vanilla, developed and distributed by Miller Puckette) with a large assortment of external libraries to enable features not included with the original software. This included all sorts of mathematical functions, objects for audio processing, list handling, serial communication, video, pictures, 3-D graphics using OpenGL, and objects included with Max/MSP/Jitter, but not with Pd. Sadly, no one maintained this release and it fell into serious disrepair: broken objects, frequent crashes, differences among operating systems, and it has not kept up with major updates to Pd itself. On the Pd Community Site it is described as “dead”.

At MassArt we are using the most recent version of PureData distributed by Miller Puckette directly. It can be found on his Web site: Software by Miller Puckette. The current version is 0.54-1.

Installing the software itself is pretty straightforward, but I’ve written this guide to cover the installation of certain ‘externals’ (a.k.a. libraries in other programming languages) needed for our classes. These include libraries to enable serial communication with Arduinos (comport) and the ability to play videos, work with 3-d shapes, display images, and access Web cameras (Gem). This is current as of March 18, 2024.