[PD-dev] pd 0.37 and help patches

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Sunday, Sep 14, 2003, at 22:16 America/New_York, Yves Degoyon wrote:

> hi,
>
> it seems now, with 0.37, that pd cannot find usual help files
> because it systematically prepends "help-" to the searched file,
> mm, that's annoying for the tons of objects that
> register their own help files in separate directory like
> pidip/my-help-file.pd.
>
> from s_path.c :
>    strcpy(realname, "help-");
>
> results into :
>
> > tried /usr/local/pd-0.37-test7/pidip/help-help_pdp_imgloader.pd and 
> failed
> > tried 
> /usr/local/pd-0.37-test7/doc/5.reference/help-help_pdp_imgloader.pd 
> and failed
> > sorry, couldn't find help for "help_pdp_imgloader.pd"
>
> sorry, but the error message is even wrong.
> i'd rather this rule be removed
> if you don't mind.
>

The whole 'help-' thing is a bit of a mess right now since Pd is 
automatically prepending help- to the name of the help file, even if it 
was declared with a class_sethelpsymbol() with a help- already 
prepended.  So I see a couple options to remedy the situation:

1)
#if PD_MINOR_VERSION < 37  || !defined(PD_MINOR_VERSION)
     class_sethelpsymbol(audience_class_tilde, 
gensym("help-audience~.pd"));
#endif
(but that's a whooole lot of objects to edit, basically almost every 
object in the CVS)

2)
/*     strcpy(realname, "help-"); */
/*     strncat(realname, name, MAXPDSTRING-5); */
     strncat(realname, name, MAXPDSTRING);
	...
     post("sorry, couldn't find help for \"%s\"", realname);
(there is probably a better way to do this, but you get the idea)

3) writing code to only prepend 'help-' if it isn't already there.

#2 sounds like the easiest and most expedient option, but I don't know 
entirely what the repercussions would be, if any.  #3 sounds like the 
best for the long haul.  #1 sounds like a ton of menial work.

.hc