Does PDVST actually work? I could never get it to run (on Windowze XP), has anyone ever gotten it to run successfully?
I personally think that the ability to compile PD patches would be extremely helpful, regardless of the fact that it is open source. Sometimes the whole open source perspective gets too focused on needs of developers, and not on needs of musicians and composers and end users, who might just want a cool application to play with.
I would love to build an application to share with my friends, that I could package as a self-contained unit. If I could compile it as Audio Unit and VST, that would be even better. Until that day, I prefer commercial software to make things to share. It's just easier to give away a VST, than try and get pure data installed in many cases. If it was built with PD, then those interested could also see the source patch, but only if they wanted to bother with that.
It personally took me months, and several version changes, until finally Hans released the PD Extended-RC7, to get PD going with a decent amount of externals. Well, at least now I can finally recommend it to my friends, which I could not do when things were always broken...
~David
As far as plugins, you could check out PDVST to get PD running as a VST/VSTi under windows:
http://crca.ucsd.edu/~jsarlo/pdvst/
Besides running PD in a VST host, you could also run it alongside whatever other app you are using, and connect them together using OSC for data, MIDI for control and JACK for audio (if you are on Linux or OSX). This should approximate most of what you would gain from having a true plug-in system, except maybe for presets and BPM syncing (both of which could be programmed into your PD patches with some work). It's not Pluggo, but it's not useless either.
good luck, d.
-- derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl ---Oblique Strategy # 18: "Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle"
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