max-go

Toolkit for building Max externals with Go.

Installation

First you need to ensure you have recent version of Go installed. On macOS simply install it using brew:

brew install go

Then you can install the package and CLI using Go's module management:

go get -u github.com/256dpi/max-go
go get -u github.com/256dpi/max-go/cmd/maxgo

This will install the maxgo command line utility. You may need to add Go's bin directory tou your PATH variable to access the CLI in the terminal:

echo 'export PATH=~/go/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zprofile # for zsh

Cross compilation on macOS for Windows additionally requires the zig toolchain:

brew install zig

Usage

Add the following file to an empty directory:

package main

import  "github.com/256dpi/max-go"

type instance struct {
	in1   *max.Inlet
	in2   *max.Inlet
	out1  *max.Outlet
	out2  *max.Outlet
}

func (i *instance) Init(obj *max.Object, args []max.Atom) {
	// print to Max console
	max.Pretty("init", args)

	// declare inlets
	i.in1 = obj.Inlet(max.Any, "example inlet 1", true)
	i.in2 = obj.Inlet(max.Float, "example inlet 2", false)

	// declare outlets
	i.out1 = obj.Outlet(max.Any, "example outlet 1")
	i.out2 = obj.Outlet(max.Bang, "example outlet 2")
}

func (i *instance) Handle(inlet int, msg string, data []max.Atom) {
	// print to Max console
	max.Pretty("handle", inlet, msg, data)

	// send to first outlet
	i.out1.Any(msg, data)
}

func (i *instance) Free() {
	// print to Max console
	max.Pretty("free")
}

func init() {
	// initialize Max class
	max.Register("example", &instance{})
}

func main() {
	// not called
}

Compile the external to the dist directory:

maxgo -name example -out dist

You can also cross compile (macOS only) and install the external:

maxgo -name example -out dist -cross -install example