[PD] dealing with arguments and inlets

[Stefan Turner]

> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:03:09 -0500
> From: Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at eds.org>
> Subject: [PD] dealing with arguments and inlets 
> To: PD-List List <pd-list at iem.at>
> Message-ID:
<f800a0b7f1f7e6ccf418411ac1afacee at eds.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
> 
> 
> I have written some classes for handling arguments
when writing classes 
> in Pd.  They are [float_argument],
[symbol_argument], and 
> [any_argument].
  Currently, I am thinking in general,  inlets should
be 
> matched to arguments and vice versa, so these
objects all have a 
> "convenience" right inlet, to attach the [inlet] to
so that the data 
> all comes from the [*_argument] object.
> 
> To use them, you add the argument you want it to
handle like this:
> 
> [float_argument $1]
> 
> If you want a default value for when none is
specified, you would do it 
> like this:
> 
> [float_argument $2 234]
> [symbol_argument $3 default]
> [any_argument $9 asdf]
> [any_argument $5 444]
> 
> My goal is to make these a standard way of handling
arguments when 
> writing classes in Pd.  What do y'all think?

This is a very cool idea. Virtually all my
abstractions have an inlet and ii (from iem) for each
argument: would definitely be better to have both in
one.

Might it be better to go all the way and have these as
externals which function as [inlet], but also support
defaults as you've said? Obviously then it would be
cool to keep the naming argument of [inlet], which
appears when you hover.

Or alternatively to extend the built-in inlet to give
the functionality you've said, while just behaving as
currently if the extra arguments aren't given, e.g.:

[inlet] - as current
[inlet name] - as current, with a name
[inlet name $1] - as current, but at loadbang-time
output $1
[inlet name $1 123] - as current, but at loadbang-time
output $1, or 123 if $1 not specified

Don't know how you'd handle the separation of floats,
symbols and anys then though...maybe add finlet and
sinlet...??

Cheers
Stefan Turner


		
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