Can Max (or Msp/Jitter) objects call an external program?

cappy2112's icon

I'm new to Max, and I am going through lots of tutorials and documentation.
While doing this, something came to mind.

Does Max have the capability to shell out and execute an external program?
At the moment, I don't need to pass any arguments to the program, I just want to execute it.
If possible, can the external program return a pass/fail status to Max?

Wojciech Morawski's icon
cappy2112's icon

Thanks Wojciech!

On a Mac, which directory should the mxo/help files go in?
I'd like to keep extensions (externals??) that I download in separate directories than the files that come with Max.

I also saw a source file in that zip.
Is there documentation with Max showing how to write extension modules?
(I'm still going through the introductory tutorials)

Wojciech Morawski's icon

Thats true :)