[PD] Pd FLOSS Manual Update pt 1

[Frank Barknecht]

Hallo,
Jonathan Wilkes hat gesagt: // Jonathan Wilkes wrote:

> I agree that meta-messages should be called meta-messages, if 
> they're called anything.  But I don't see how to make the 
> distinction clear without having a comprehensive table of relevant 
> pd-vanilla objects and their behavior regarding meta-messages.
> Why do the first inlets of pack and symbol accept [pitch( ?
> Why wouldn't the secondary inlets of pack and symbol accept 
> [pitch( ?

Or their behaviour regarding data messages: Why doesn't the first inlet of
float accept symbol-messages? *Of course* you have to learn each object's
behaviour to be able to use it. But if nobody tells you that there's a
difference between "pitch" and "symbol pitch" many of the object's behaviour
will seem arcane to you. 

In fact I believe, that beginners have difficulites to understand messages
because their tutors ignore these issues. Maybe they ignore them because they
themselves feel uncomfortable with messages, meta-messages, symbols and other
magic things - and a tutor needs to understand a topic in a much deeper way
than his student.

But people are way too scared of meta-messages. They are nothing special. If
you understand the difference between "symbol"- and "float"- messages, there
is no problem understanding the difference between a "float"- and a
"set"-message or between a "symbol" and a "read"-messages. And you surely are
using these messages all the time. 

> Why does the second inlet of [list] accept [pitch( but the first 
> inlet of [makefilename %s] doesn't?

[list] objects accept everything and convert all incoming messages to data
messages, i.e. to list-messages. [list trim] converts back to meta messages. 

> How do message-box dollar signs handle meta-messages?

They take the first element as selector, and then start counting from there. 

> How does [list length] handle them?

See above: Like all [list]-objects it first converts to a list.

> Do you need [list trim] to route a float list by the first value?

No but it doesn't hurt.

Ciao
-- 
Frank