Learning max/msp/jitter

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