Min-DevKit

Tools, documentation, and reference implementation of a Max Package built using the Min-API.

Structure

There are two layers of material included in the Min-DevKit package.

• min-devkit is an example package following current best-practices for package creation.
• min-api is a folder within the devkit containing all of the support files you will need to compile an external object written in modern C++. This folder you will include in your own package's source folder.
• min-lib contains building blocks, helper classes, and unit generators that may be useful in authoring C++ code for audio, video, and data processing.

Prerequisites

To build the externals in this package you will need some form of compiler support on your system.

• On the Mac this means Xcode 10, 11 or 12 (you can get from the App Store for free).
• On Windows this means Visual Studio 2017 or 2019 (you can download a free version from Microsoft). The installer for Visual Studio 2017 offers an option to install Git, which you should choose to do.

You will also need to install a recent version of CMake (version 3.19 or higher).

Building

0. Clone the Min-DevKit from Github into Max's Packages folder. If you clone it elsewhere you will need to make an alias to it in your Packages folder.
   • The Packages folder can be found inside of your Max 8 folder which is inside of your user's Documents folder.
   • It is recommended to rename the package so as not to conflict with the legacy Max Package Manager version. (Otherwise you'll get conflict errors suggesting that you replace your local version with one on the PM server.)
   • Also make sure you clone recursively so that all sub-modules are properly initiated.
   • As a single command: git clone https://github.com/Cycling74/min-devkit.git --recursive my-min-devkit
1. In the Terminal or Console app of your choice, change directories (cd) into the Min-Devkit folder you cloned/installed in step 0.
2. mkdir build to create a folder with your various build files
3. cd build to put yourself into that folder
4. Now you can generate the projects for your choosen build environment:

Mac

Run cmake -G Xcode ..

Next run cmake --build . or open the Xcode project from this "build" folder and use the GUI.

Note: you can add the -j4 option where "4" is the number of cores to use. This can help to speed up your builds, though sometimes the error output is interleaved in such a way as to make troubleshooting more difficult.

If you are running on a Mac M1 machine, you will likely see an error cannot be loaded due to system security policy when loading your externals in Max. To resolve this, you can ad-hoc codesign your external with codesign --force --deep -s - myobject.mxo.

Windows

You can run cmake --help to get a list of the options available. Assuming some version of Visual Studio 2019, the commands to generate the projects will look like this:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" ..

Or using Visual Studio 2017 it will look like this:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" ..

Having generated the projects, you can now build by opening the .sln file in the build folder with the Visual Studio app (just double-click the .sln file) or you can build on the command line like this:

cmake --build . --config Release

Max 8.2 Update

The Min-DevKit was updated on August 5, 2021 to support Apple silion and unify base headers with the Max SDK. There may be some modifications required to existing projects in order to integrate this update. See the SDK 8.2 update readme or the Max 8.2 SDK Update Overview video for further details. For support with this update please use the Max developer forum.

Unit Testing

On the command line you can run all unit tests using Cmake:

• on debug builds: ctest -C Debug .
• on release builds: ctest -C Release .

Or you can run an individual test, which is simply a command line program:

• cd ..
• cd tests
• mac example: ./test_dcblocker_tilde -s
• win example: test_dcblocker_tilde.exe -s

Or you can run them with your IDE's debugger by selecting the "RUN_TESTS" target.

Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a process by which each code check-in is verified by an automated build and automated tests to allow developers to detect problems early and distribute software easily.

The Min-DevKit project models CI using Github Actions.

Additional Documentation

• Min Documentation Hub For guides, references, and resources
• Min Wiki For additional topics, advanced configuration, and user submissions
• How to Create a New Package
• How to Create a New Object
• How to Contribute to Min
• How to Update the underlying Max API

Contributors / Acknowledgements

• See the GitHub Contributor Graph for the API
• See the GitHub Contributor Graph for the DevKit

Support

For support, please use the developer forums at: http://cycling74.com/forums/