opening objects
hey there, I was wondering if anyone knew if there are ways to look into how most objects work. ways to see how the object breaks down into its most simple components so that I could replicate the object but make some changes. I can see how this might not be the case as people could lose money over it, but perhaps if there are ways/tables/indexes where the most basic objects that come with maxmsp as a default are explained/defined/broken down. ta.
The external objects themselves could be said to represent the "black box" level of detail, and you cannot "open the object" as such. However, while you can't see what the low level process or algorithm used in an external is, the Max refpages describe every single attribute any object has. It also describes every single method associated with that object. And it even describes the messages you can sent to a Max object box.
Beyond that, you could consider the Max SDK as a look "inside" external objects in a simple and basic way - they describe the programming language level way that a Max object functions, and the SDK also includes several examples of source code for objects that demonstrate those functions.
The other option would be to find those objects written by third-party persons who are kind enough to include source code for those objects. There are a considerable number of them out there, and perhaps www.maxobjects.com would be a good place to start your search.
But Max, MSP, and Jitter are not open source. If that's what you absolutely require, perhaps you could assuage your disappointment by considering Pd, which *is* open source. While it certainly isn't Max, it might meet your needs for access to everything at the source code level.