A major new upgrade to Max/MSP/Jitter is coming soon.
Max 5 is based on being easier to use, easier to learn, and easier to deal with. In order to work toward those goals, we've put a lot of effort into creating a more modern graphical user interface for interactive real-time graphical programmers. I should point out that a programming environment is not the first thing that people have in mind when they think about graphical user interfaces.
Easier to Use
1. Multiple undo is available.
2. Objects interact with time in ways that are more meaningful than milliseconds.
3. The patcher is variable resolution and can be zoomed in and out.
4. A simplified and more consistent interface, identical on Mac and Windows.
5. A new object palette (with nice big resizable icons!) works as a visual catalog.
Easier to Learn
1. The documentation is completely integrated into the user interface.
2. A searchable database of objects, media, examples, and documentation integrates all of the provided material.
3. Introductory tutorials have been completely rewritten, and include integrated patches.
4. New interactive debugging tools make figuring out what your patch is doing (almost) fun.
5. Third-party object developers can now use all of our documentation tools for their products.
Easier to Deal With
1. The interface can easily be localized and customized.
2. A new file format is more readable, extensible and reliable.
3. Support for Unicode text and filenames.
4. A new interface layer -- "Presentation Mode" – provides a new way to build user interfaces without cluttering your patch.
5. The installation and authorization experience is vastly improved.
Behind these ease-of-use goals you will find a lot of new software technology that we've been working on for over two years. I won't bore you with the details, but pretty much every piece of Max (except the part that runs your patch) has been modernized. We've dropped the MDI interface on Windows in favor of a more elegant SDI model. The graphics are composited (which means things can be translucent), and the programs are remarkably identical between platforms. And because we needed it for our documentation, we'll let you drop a web browser into your patcher whenever you need one.
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