[PD] style guide idea: [send foo] versus [; foo(

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

I am not proposing to limit the use of dollar args in message boxes  
for dynamic sends, that is a very useful feature. The example you give  
here, though, is an example of a shortcut for typing, there is no  
other benefit that I can see.

And at the risk of sounding pedantic, I am going to quote one of my  
favorite ideas relating to code: "Programs should be written for  
people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute".   
Typing shortcuts like this message box below almost never save time  
when you look at the whole picture.  Code is read far more times than  
it is written, so really we should be optimizing for reading rather  
than writing.

In Pd, [trigger] is the central mechanism for specifying execution  
order.  Therefore, in the interest of readability, [trigger] should be  
used as much as possible.

Clearer documentation of the messages boxes would also be a great  
thing.  But you almost anything without ever using a semi-colon in a  
message box, they are mostly used as a typing shortcut, and many  
people are confused by them, so I think we should really be limiting  
them to things like dynamic sends, since that is hard to do in other  
ways.

.hc

On Mar 20, 2009, at 1:32 AM, dmotd wrote:

> hmm.. generally this could be a good idea, but message sending is  
> most useful
> when initialising a number of receives ie:
>
> [loadbang]
>  |
> |; init-1 6          /
> |; init-2 symbol foo |
> |; init-3 -2         \
>
> which is far more elegant than the the trigger/send replacement,  
> especially
> with more fields..
>
> i think its important for students to recognise that this feature of  
> messaging
> has a role to play, rather than trying to veil its use. in my  
> experience
> people will tend to use [send foo] more often when they start pd,  
> then begin
> abbreviating to [s foo] before they appreciate the msg shorthand [;  
> foo[. but
> you are right it is a little confusing for new users..
>
> perhaps this just needs clearer documenting? 'what does a semi-colon  
> at the
> start of a message mean?' in the FAQ?
>
> dmotd
>
> On Friday 20 March 2009 10:38:06 Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>> Here's something that I'd like to propose for the style guide, based
>> on my teaching experience:
>>
>> - use [send foo]  instead of [; foo( for all sends that aren't
>> dynamically set
>>
>> A lot of people find the [; foo( syntax confusing, and since it is
>> commonly used, it often gets in the way of newbies understanding the
>> patch.  While the [; foo( syntax is definitely useful for dynamic
>> sends, I don't think there is an advantage to using for the regular
>> sends.  So for example:
>>
>> [dsp 1(
>>
>> [send pd]
>>
>> instead of
>>
>> |;                /
>> |pd dsp 1 \
>>
>> This change highlights the dataflow aspect of the messages over the
>> text-style programming with syntax of the message box.  At the very
>> least, I think that the help patches should use this style, and I  
>> have
>> started to use this style in my regular programming and it feels  
>> quite
>> natural once you are used to it.  I find it easier to read.
>>
>> (as for [s foo] versus [send foo] that's an issue I want to avoid in
>> this discussion).
>>
>> .hc
>>
>>
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>>
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>> King, Jr.
>>
>>
>>
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Programs should be written for people to read, and only incidentally  
for machines to execute.
  - from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs