[PD] Idiomatic Pd

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

I think a style guide is a great idea.  There have been some  
discussions along these lines in the past.  I'd say just start a  
"wiki folder" on puredata.info in the /docs/ section and edit it up.   
Something like /docs/style-guide/ I think that the main page could  
lay out all of the possible realms of style, like dollar arguments,  
abstractions, subpatches, inlets/outlets, trigger, etc.  Then the  
next step people can create sub-pages that outline all of their  
styles.  Then ultimately, things would be organized into a single  
style-guide.

.hc

On Jul 27, 2008, at 9:34 PM, Luke Iannini wrote:

> There are some amazing sets of abstractions being released recently,
> which has served to highlight the many extant styles of patching.  I
> was wondering if there was interest in establishing a set of
> guidelines for patching in the vein of PEP 8 for Python; I've found
> that document to be very relaxing as it is a standardized approach to
> OCD.  More seriously, it greatly helps when reading other people's
> code or collaborating.
> http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/
>
> The only one I have seen so far for Pd covers best practices for
> layout.  I'd want to include that, but also codify naming, arguments,
> common idioms, and so on.
>
> I've begun to collect some of my practices to start things off.  I was
> hoping we could all lazy-vote the document together in this thread and
> I'll then compile it into a PdPedia/Pd.info document.  So, feel free
> to object to or replace my propositions.
>
> Style:
> * If giving $0 as an argument to an abstraction, it is always first in
> the argument list [1]
> * * When possible, pass parent arguments in numeric order, like [child
> $0 $1 $2 other1 other2] etc.
> * Sends and Receives are written in camelCase, with "R" appended to
> complementary receives (e.g. in GUIs, $0mySlider for the send and
> $0mySliderR for the receive)
> * When prepending $0 to a symbol, only add a "-" to separate it from
> another number, like [r $0-1stSend].  Otherwise the symbol should
> immediately follow, like [r $0mySend].
> * When working with stereo, Left and Right pairs are written with Le
> and Ri appended (to distinguish them from an R denoting "receive",
> above)
>
> Programming recommendations
> * To invert a toggle, use [== 0]
> * Use the loadbang of the parent of both abstractions to initialize
> two or more interdependent abstractions
>
> [1] I think of this like emulating the "self" convention in Python
>
> And so on...
> Cheers
> Luke
>
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