I have one thing to add in reference to hiding all the guts.
Often, just when I think I'm on the verge of understanding a patch, I
click on 2 or 3 objects and discover that there's far more than I
thought. The hardest thing is remembering which input or output
is sending which piece of data. It's all okay, except when I open
a subpatch and find another one inside it, and another inside that, and
2 or 3 different copies of another one. Of course, when building
a patch for use, then whatever works, but in tutorials I kind of like
to be able to see most of what's going on at once. Maybe, if
there are abstractions that are used often, they could be explained
first in the line of tutorials, so by the time you get to pretty
complex stuff, some of the hidden parts are already familiar.<br>
<br>
-Chuckk<br>
<br>
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 14:05:54 -0500<br>
From: Hans-Christoph Steiner <<a href="mailto:hans@eds.org">hans@eds.org</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [PD] Pd tutorials!<br>
To: dafydd hughes <<a href="mailto:dafydd61@sideshowmedia.ca">dafydd61@sideshowmedia.ca</a>><br>
Cc: <a href="mailto:pd-list@iem.at">pd-list@iem.at</a><br>
Message-ID: <63fb860e646b0f2848262caf62e2c5
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><a href="mailto:d8@eds.org">d8@eds.org</a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
<br><br><br>On Nov 4, 2005, at 10:41 AM, dafydd hughes wrote:<br><br>> Hi HC<br>><br>> These look great. Can we show them to the folks here at InterAccess?<br><br>All code that I write is GNU GPL'd, including Pd patches, so do
<br>whatever you want as long as you share your modifications.<br><br>> Also, I started a series of basic Digital Audio/Pd tuts, and I'd love<br>> feedback on what I have so far, and to see if anybody would find them
<br>> useful (drafts, not final product!):<br>><br>> <a href="http://www.sideshowmedia.ca/audiotuts.zip">http://www.sideshowmedia.ca/audiotuts.zip</a><br><br>These are quite nice, very good interactive + visual examples. I have
<br>a couple of comments:<br><br>- Nice use of standardized elements! We should have a set of standard<br>elements for all Pd docs and tutorials. There is a patch that I<br>started with this idea in mind, I view it as a wiki, so people should
<br>add more standard elements to it: (in CVS)<br>doc/pddp/standard_gui_elements.pd<br><br>- I think the guts should always be hidden in a subpatch. Only the<br>essential elements to illustrate the principal should be on screen.
<br>That way it makes the overall page look much less intimidating. The<br>idea is to have each patch as simple as possible so that its very<br>approachable. Then, if people are curious, they can open the guts.<br><br>- I then all help and tutorial patches should all fit on 800x600 at
<br>least, maybe even 640x480. Pd can run on old computers, which may be<br>in use in many parts of the world. Ideally, the Pd tutorials would be<br>visible on a computer than can run Pd.<br><br>I posted some content to the wiki that Ben started a while back:
<br><br><a href="http://puredata.org/docs/workshops">http://puredata.org/docs/workshops</a><br><br>I think this should be the center of this discussion so we all can keep<br>track of things.<br><br>.hc<br><br></blockquote>