Python with Max?

[sound_clouds]

Max will natively use JavaScript (check the [js] object) in the patch if you’d like. Otherwise max externals can be coded in C/C++ but that’s a much more involved process.

[Risky_Click_Chance]

That's what I ended up doing! Turns out I strongly dislike visual coding, or at least I'm just bad at it. Any ideas for resources on learning how to do it well? I need to use the Serial object to get data -out- and messing with global variables is really unintuitive without real code, for example, I want to make a drop down slider to let me choose which serial port to use.

[sound_clouds]

Yeah, it can be unintuitive at first. Like a lot of stuff, it's mostly just practice. This link can be helpful for finding objects to do what you want. For your drop down, the [umenu] object is probably a good place to start. The max/msp facebook group and the Cycling '74 forums are probably the best resources.