I'm retired from Oberlin but the teacher in me still kicks in now and then. Reading manuals is not a waste of time. There have been several recent posts that are almost immediately answered by referring the questioner to a basic object. I love newbies but this makes learning max a very long and frustrating process.

Here what I did/do...

First, read the Max/MSP manuals from cover to cover without trying to get every detail. This gives a general understanding of what is there.

Then, periodically, skim the manual reading only the headers. On the right is the name of the object and on the left is a brief description of the object. If the object has a graphic representation it is in the middle of the header. I do this about once a week and it takes 10-15 minutes - less each time I skim. I also skim the bookmarks in the PDF files stopping to read about objects that I don't recognize or remember. What this does is remind me of what is in the toolkit. When a need arises for a particular function I can usually answer by telling myself that that function does exist. Saves me the time in trying to write it myself.

I do the same thing - less perfectly (right, ej, st?) - with the third party packages that I use regularly.

Another approach is to use maxobjects.com as a thesaurus. Try searching "increment decrement." I got seven items including IncDec with some descriptions running to more than 10 lines. It also included gak, a genetic algorithm kit that I did not know about. So (sorry to use my professor voice) but I learned something useful while looking for something else. Now THAT saves time!

Cheers Gary Lee Nelson TIMARA Department Oberlin College www.timara.oberlin.edu/GaryLeeNelson