[PD] Where is the object reference documentation?

[Jim Aikin]

On 6/6/2010 8:42 PM, Funs Seelen wrote:
> Typing "pure data object list" in google leads you straight to the 
> flossmanual, which contains useful documentation about pd (and other 
> Free-Licensed-Open-Source-Software), including object-lists. For not 
> all existing libraries are in pd-extended probably not all existing 
> objects will show up on the list. Which objects you're able to use 
> depends on the version you installed and which external libraries 
> you've loaded.

Thanks for the tip. However, the array object (which I doubt is in one 
of the extended libraries) is not shown in the flossmanual list of 
objects. Nor do the items in the list on that site link to any sort of 
documentation of the objects that _are_ listed.

There is a page on arrays, graphs, and tables. But it doesn't mention 
the idea of clipping the values within an array, which I have now been 
reminded is done by processing the input value using a moses. That's 
easy enough to do ... the point is, it's not documented anywhere on the 
array page, and the dialog box for the Canvas Properties is needlessly 
confusing, because it implies that the user can do something that is not 
in fact possible.

I love free, open-source software. What I don't love, not even a little 
tiny bit, is the _documentation_ for free, open-source software.

But then, I'm a professional writer. I have standards for how 
documentation ought to be written. What scares me is the possibility 
that the standards for the coding may not be any higher than the 
standards for the documentation. I seem today, for instance, to have 
stumbled on a serious bug in the Csound midiin opcode. That sort of 
thing seems to go with the territory. (Not that commercial software is 
free of bugs, or always has good manuals!)

--JA