Max (programming language)

Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by the San Francisco company Cycling '74. Miller Puckette began work on it in 1985 at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique in Paris, where it was first called The Patcher and gave composers a graphical interface for building interactive computer music scores on the Macintosh. Max programs, called patches, are made by arranging and connecting objects on a visual canvas, and objects pass messages from their outlets to the inlets of connected objects, so the language works as a data-flow system. The MSP extension added real-time digital audio, Jitter added video and graphics, and third parties extend the program with external objects written in C, C++, Java or JavaScript. Max is named after the composer Max Mathews and can be considered a descendant of his MUSIC language. Ableton announced its purchase of Cycling '74 in 2017, and Max 9 was released in October 2024.