Pure Data
PHP
PicoIP

Pure Data

Pure Data is an OPEN SOURCE software developed by Miller Puckette (Center for Research en Computing and Arts CRCA). Miller Puckette is at the origin of the development of MAX MSP and JMAX which are graphic programming languages almost identical to Pure Data but for a commercial use. Conceived in the spirit of the OPEN SOURCE, Pure Data is an open software for which many add on (added modules) have been written by a world community of developers.
Pure Data is a graphical development language in which information works by using conducting wires and is modified by objects all along its way. In its initial version it allows information to be transmitted through the network. Pure Data works on all the platforms (Linux, Mac OS, Windows) .

PHP

PHP took over an older language, called PHP/FI. PHP/FI was created by Rasmus Lerdorf, in 1995. Initially it was a library of scripts Perl, that he was using to note the access to his online CV. He gave the name of ' Personal Home Page Tools' to this library. As he was adding new functionalities, Rasmus transformed the library into an implementation in C, able to communicate with the data base, and to create dynamic and simple applications for the Web. Rasmus then decided to publish its code, so that everyone could use and thus take advantage of it. This also led to contributions and improvements of the code.

PHP/FI, which means Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter, includes several basic functions that are still used today. This uses variables that look like Perl, an automatic system of interpretation of form variables, and a syntax that can easily be integrated to HTML. The Syntax itself was similar to Perl’s but much more limited. It was simple yet a bit incoherent.

In 1997, PHP/FI 2.0, the second version in C language, already had an estimated audience of several thousand users worldwide and approximately 50,000 domain names indicated that they had installed PHP. That accounted for approximately 1% of the domain names on Internet. Even if the number of contributors were quite large, PHP was still the project of a single man.

PHP/FI 2.0 was officially published in November 1997, after having spent its main existence in beta version. A bit later, an alpha version of PHP 3.0 was published.

Today, most of the sites use PHP for dynamic management of information. The current version 5.0 is used more in business environments and many open source scripts exist from the management of forums to online shops. It is probably the language that has had the most rapid growth the last few years.

PicoIP

PicoIP is the interface between the network, the tools described above and the mechanical systems.
It is an OPEN SOURCE project started in 2000 in order to control remote systems from the network. Conceived around a PC network card and a RISC processor, the goal of the project was to build a network communication system using a processor 100 times slower than those which equipped the majority of computers. The processor that fits out PicoIP today is 100 000 times slower than a PENTIUM 4 at 4 Ghz.

Several versions of PicoIP, developed by a community of developers, were born. The version used for the workshop IDRE is the version 2.3 which was modified to drive devices with Pure Data. A specific I/O card was created by LOEIL integrating the basic functions and protocol needed to drive devices, this I/O card is directly compatible with PicoIP.

The next version of PicoIP will use a WIFI card and will drive 'travelling' devices.

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