I wanted more feedback from the list guys: do you think it would be a good idea?
Personally, I'm in favor of a combined pd/jmax IRC channel. Last time I tried to join 'the' pd channel (I checked the mailing archives, I think perhaps there has been more than one proposed), I don't recall it being very active. I don't have any first hand experience with the jMax chat crowd, but I would imagine the user base is (a) similarly sized and (b) similarly inclined as the pd crowd, even prior to considering technical compatability between the two programming environments. Just like newsgroups, mailing lists and community web sites like pure-data.org, IRC is one of the tools that we have as internet users to develop interchange about pd.
<soapbox> I don't think it's unfair to say that pd has a relatively 'small but fervent following'. Regardless, it is one of the most functional and extensible languages available to us as musicians/artists/academia. Although open source software addresses many of the complaints that electronic musicians have with their software such as, high price, not flexible, not reliable, open source software is less frequently used than it's commercial counterparts. As members of this list, this community, we are able to provide counter-examples to this sort of 'anti-free software' sentiment. An active IRC channel is representative of a responsive internet community and is a great way to share knowledge quickly and effectively so that we all may be more familiar with the tools, ideas and concepts common to us as users of pd & jMax. This is how as a community we may provide useful, concrete examples to those who would otherwise be experimenting with these way of creating and manipulating sound or video. </soapbox>
I would really like to see this happen. I've found it fairly difficult to locate like-minded music geeks of the pd/jMax variety, so being able to meet in an IRC channel brings everything closer to tangibility.
cheers-
Ian