Opening Externals?

    Ameqc
    Nov 17 2011 | 8:55 pm
    I'm interested in maybe making some externals, but I can't really find anything on the internet that isn't for Mac OSX (I use windows). I think one of the best ways would be for me to just be able to open the max object files from the externals folder and just check out the programming of them, but I don't know what programs to use, my friend said i might need a decompiler, and also I don't know if its legal. Any advice?
    • Roman Thilenius
      Nov 17 2011 | 8:58 pm
      there is a handful of source code coming with the developer manual, does that help?
    • Ameqc
      Nov 17 2011 | 9:11 pm
      Sure, but if there's a way to just open files and view their code, that would be easier Then I could just download the tons of free objects on the net along with checking out the objects that come with max.
    • Chris Muir
      Nov 17 2011 | 10:11 pm
      Decompilers exist, but they are not the way a newbie should proceed. They don't give you much in the was of usable source code.
      You are much better off grabbing the SDK and whatever examples exist there, and learning from that.
    • Ameqc
      Nov 17 2011 | 10:17 pm
      K, i'll get the SDK and check it out. I'm not entirely new to programming. I've done some HTML, Actionscript, Java, and C. all of them I was a beginner - intermediate level at, except Actionscript I used for 4 years and I could do some pretty decent things with it. Would decompiled code possibly make more sense to me given that you know that?
    • Chris Muir
      Nov 17 2011 | 11:05 pm
      No, because most of those are not really compiled languages. The difference between C and the machine code it produces is vast. A dissassembler doesn't reconstruct usable C code.
    • Roman Thilenius
      Nov 17 2011 | 11:10 pm
      let me put it like this: start with the SDK examples, when you have finished looking at them, go to step two. :)
    • Ameqc
      Nov 18 2011 | 4:45 pm
      ah ok, thanks a lot.