andytodd.msp

I've got 2 questions which i'm hoping someone can help with.....

1. Is there an app which will retrieve a unique computer number from the host machine? (MAC address?)

2. Is it possible for a standalone app to have a "memory" i.e. if I want to count how many times it has been opened, or to remember settings etc?

standalone-help-and-unique-system-id-help

1) What platform? On Mac the System Information app will tell you this, and much more.

FWIW, I once wrote an external that pulled the MAC address out of the woodworks and gave it to the Max world as a list of integers. No idea if the external still works (last time I looked at it, we were at something like Max 4.5).

2) Sure. Look at pattr & Co. Increment an attribute every time your standalone is launched (or write to a disk file, reading the last version before incrementing).

Im not sure if I have misunderstood, but I am looking for an object within MAX which can give me the MAC address (or another unique computer ID) for PC ideally - but mac would be fine also.

The wording of your original question explicitly used the word "app," so I assumed you meant what you wrote and answered accordingly.

As for your more recent wording: have you looked at MaxObjects.com? (I'm not sure the site has been getting a lot of updates lately, but it's still a useful resource for finding Max externals.)

The point of my initial response was that it's perfectly possible for an external to do what you asked. (As far as I know, there was only ever one person using the external I wrote many years ago, and I don't know if he's still using it.)

Also, it's not particularly hard to write this sort of thing to be cross-platform compatible. It's just not fun, because you have to write directly to OS-specific APIs (there's nothing in the Max API to take care of OS-related differences). If you only need one of the two platforms Max runs on, you may have more luck with an OS-specific external.

The point of my initial response was that it's perfectly possible for an external to do what you asked. (As far as I know, there was only ever one person using the external I wrote many years ago, and I don't know if he's still using it.) 

Also, it's not particularly hard to write this sort of thing to be cross-platform compatible. It's just not fun, because you have to write directly to OS-specific APIs (there's nothing in the Max API to take care of OS-related differences). If you only need one of the two platforms Max runs on, you may have more luck with an OS-specific external.


I've been having a play with your idea of using pattr to save settings in a patch, however when I build the patch into a standalone it does not write to the storage file (.json) and the max window gives me an error message.

When I built the standalone, I copied the .json file which was created using the basic patch into the standalone directory but it doesnt seem to like it, it loads fine just wont write!

I'm still looking for a way to get max to report the machine ID / MAC address of the computer than it is being run on - if anybody has any ideas, or knows of any externals, it would be a massive help!

Standalone help and Unique system ID help!