API & Ableton’s CEO words

Gerhard, I met one time in my life, is a very smart person.
He understood a lot of things around software development and his words about opensource are nice for me.
He wrote this http://cec.concordia…es_ableton.html

About API,
API are those pieces of software that brings the VERY internal stuff from guts of the proprietary program to the air, to us.
Through these elements, another programmer can reach data models exhibited to the visible surface of proprietary programs.
I’m pretty sure that API number will increase in the very close future.
They will, because it has already begun !
Twitter, Ableton Live, Delicious and almost everything have API today!

Before Max for Live, which written in the rock the Cycling74 / Ableton collaboration, some guys and I worked with Live remote scripts Python codes. Some reverse-engineered and forbidden things have been done and we already began to manipulate some objects under the hood of Live (wow!) because they had let the door opened!

Now, it is a pleasure with max for live.
The protodeck controller uses the Live API
it means those knobs manipulate DIRECTLY those famous LOM (Live Object Model)
So my VERY opensource diy controller works, through the MIDI standard + the official Live API, directly with Ableton Live full proprietary software!
And the implementation is VERY tight!
I really can control THE WHOLE software through that.
A bit of Javascript, some routines are used for that too .. but still in an opensource mode!

So what is the point ?
Proprietary software & opensource software can live together.
In the Max for Live case, the opensource is only the spirit, the way of mind, cause they are proprietary.. ok.
But the objects created by someone can be use by another one.
More, through Python door that still exists inside Live, you can use some OSC classes + some Pure Data patches in order to control Live: the perfect wedding?

The future is: every artist will become a programmer even a bad one, or will die.
I’m not very sure about that but it reminds me Jamie Zawinski and his email law.
So even if I’m not the famous hacker, it is my blog and I can write that, and believe a bit!