Sometimes, we need to interface other programs either because they fulfill our needs for a certain task so well that we just don't need or want to program something ourselves, or because they can do things we just can't do in Max or TD. A very likely scenario is the communication with other multimedia applications such as vvvv, processing, or a DAW-like Cubase, or Pro Tools. We are now going to list some ways of interfacing these programs and think about what we would prefer over what and why.
You already know Open Sound Control (OSC), so we won't talk a lot about it here. Typically, we use it on the UDP layer, and it will be our first choice for communication between different pieces of software and if the data we want to transfer is not audio or video but messages. Communicating via the network has a huge advantage in that there is nearly no effort needed to change from a scenario in which both pieces of software (Max and TD, for example...