[PD-dev] PD patches in XML

[Georg Holzmann]

Hallo!

> i think this inherits a bit the weaknesses of pd's standard format.
> which is: mixing up functionality (object-name), modifiers (arguments) 
> and graphical representation (position).
yep!

> i would rather seperate them as much as possible, something like
> 
> <canvas>
>  <gui xpos="828" ypos="549" height="450" width="341">
>  <obj ID="obj1">
>   f
>   <args>2</args>
>   <gui xpos="49" ypos="134">
>  </obj>
>  <obj ID="obj2">
>   trigger
>   <args>float float</args>
>   <gui xpos="49" ypos="134" bgcolor="#FF00FF">
>  </obj>
> </canvas>
okay, maybe it's clearer to use a own tag for all the gui properties. So 
we can also easy expand these GUI-descriptions (e.g. for IEM-GUIs etc.).

> as with pd-0.38, objects that pd's not able to create still connect (i 
> guess with some wild hack that tracks the highest number of connected 
> outlets of an object)
good to know ...
> this could also be done simply by giving meta-information such as
>  <obj ID="obj10" inlets="1" outlets="4">foo</obj>


> well i am not at all into XML (so i do not know which restrictions you 
> can put into a validator) but i guess this syntax is very prone for 
> things like
> <connect>
>   <outlet ID="obj1">0</outlet>
>   <outlet ID="obj2">1</outlet>
> </connect> 
> how could you avoid this ? (connecting 2 outlets)
in the parsing of the XML-file only outlet tags get connected to inlet tags?
of course it could also be something like this:
<connect from="obj1" outlet="0" to="obj2" inlet="1"/>
But in this case it's more difficult to connect one outlet to multiple 
inlets.
e.g.:
<connect>
   <outlet ID="obj1">0</outlet>
   <inlet ID="obj2">1</inlet>
   <inlet ID="obj5">0</inlet>
</connect>
But do we need that ?


> it is not clear from your example (because it is short), but:
>  object-identifiers ("ID") should be unique identifiers, at least within 
> the scope of a (canvas-) tag.
> ID's should be able to be chosen arbitrarily, so this would be a valid 
> patch:
I also thought in that way.

> people that are writing patches in a text-editor could choose whatever 
> ID they like (but have to make sure, that it is unique)
This way, i think, it's really much easier to write patches in a text 
editor.


> <obj ID="foo">print</obj>
> <msg ID="bar">
>  bang
>  <connect n="0">
>   <inlet ID="foo" n="0">
>   <gui color="red">comment</gui>
>  </connect>
> </msg>
Maybe this (and also to top down approach) should be possible 
additionally to the normal connect tag?
But doesn't it get to complicated ?



LG
Georg