Well, what is reasonable is quite subjective though. Anyway I referred to a "global" comparison, as you said the (_computing_) domain of both do overlap, but I specified the importance that IMHO the community supporting the project has.
I personally don't think the community approach of Max is comparable to Pd.
As concerning the documentation issue, well I think it is a constant topic while discussing about free or open source software, but reading documentation is not the only way to learn something. Again, the way you look for knowledge depends just on your personal approach.
I started with Max (at university, our prof. gave us cracked copies to use), and then I migrate to Pd _also_ because I found many people around me, or in the different places i happened to be, who were incredibly glad and excited while sharing their knowledge.
I'm not saying this does not happen for Max users, actually i don't know, just explaining my experience.
(anyway there is plenty of documentation about Pd, i don't know when I will finish to read everything, perhaps, yes, sometimes it is not so easy to find)

On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 5:18 PM, Matteo Sisti Sette <matteosistisette@gmail.com> wrote:

Marco Donnarumma <devel@thesaddj.com> wrote:
> I personally think there is nothing to >compare. All of them are quite
> separate environments, and i mean not only >computing capabilities,
> flexibility and GUI, but above all each community >supporting the
> projects.

Well I think Max and PD _are_ quite comparable; their domains do overlap quite a lot, though of course they are not identical.
And though it is absurd to state that one is plainly better than the other, it _is_ reasonable to discuss in which aspects one is better and in which others the other is. Especially for the sake of improving PD until it _is_ just plainly better :))

Then the answer to the original question (i.e. the subject) is: Pd rules, all the others just suck - just kidding here.

By the way I once collaborated with a guy who composes electroacustic music and now is doing a Ph.D. at Harvard University (I made some Pd patches for a piece he wrote), and he was fond of Pd, preferring it over Max mainly because it is Open Source etc. So when he went to Harvard and everybody there uses Max, he still was willing to keep using Pd and keep learning Pd. At the end, he told me he decided to give up and start using Max; and not because everybody does (this guy generally is not scared of being on his own) but because of documentation. He said: with Max you just download tutorials, manuals and the like and you just have to study and you learn; with Pd it is not so. He often felt stuck and/or frustrated.

I don't think Max is easier to learn than Pd; i really think they are equally difficult (or equally easy) to learn (though this is more a guess than an opinion, since I don't know Max enough). But this doesn't seem to be a unique case: I heard quite a lot of people saying they find it easier to learn Max. So I think it is a matter of documentation.

Though it may be as well a matter of personal "taste" (just the "look and feel" of an application may make you feel more or less confortable).

--
Matteo Sisti Sette
matteosistisette@gmail.com
http://www.matteosistisette.com