[PD-dev] Work on "help" menu and help-patch searching spec

Hans-Christoph Steiner hans at eds.org
Tue Apr 26 01:15:54 CEST 2005


On Apr 25, 2005, at 4:48 AM, Krzysztof Czaja wrote:

> hi Ben,
>
> B. Bogart wrote:
> ...
>> * spec for the searching of help files.
>> * organization of pd "help" pull-down menu.
>> * functional catagories for PD externals/objects.
>
> great you are pushing this.  Some random thoughts and questions...
>
> Have you considered other ways of browsing -- choosing something
> that better scales?  Not sure if hierarchical pull-down menu is
> the right way of browsing thousands of items.

There was quite a bit of discussion about this topic at the last pd-dev  
IRC meeting.  The transcripts on puredata.org, it'd also be great to  
have you along as well.  I vaguely remember a loose consensus about  
some combination of browse and search options as being the best  
solution.

> How would the help files structure relate to eventual structuring
> of class names into a browsable ``object list'' (btw. such list
> should have its own "open help file" popup)?  And how would these
> relate to eventual structuring of classes themselves into
> packages, Guenter's namespaces, or anything that would finally be
> chosen?

The "object list" help patch basically seems like a version of the  
"all_about_*" patches that Dave Sabine and I have been writing.  I  
think they are quite useful.  Look for them in CVS (doc/pddp) or in the  
Pd.app I just released.

> The structure seems closed.  I mean, even though a keyword comment
> may contain any word that its author finds suitable, only the
> predefined words would categorize the file for browsing -- is this
> the case?  and if so, why?

A simple set of keywords would be easiest to implement to start with.   
Then we can test the basic idea out, and see whether its worthwhile to  
invest a lot of time coding an dynamic, flexible keyword system.

.hc

________________________________________________________________________ 
____

            "The arc of history bends towards justice."
                                                               Dr.  
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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