[PD-dev] Re: externals/build SConscript

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Nov 1, 2005, at 1:34 PM, Tim Blechmann wrote:

>> This has been discussed ad nauseum.  Here's two reasons: 1) look at
>> how many people post to the list with questions about loading libs,
>> how many people post with problems loading single file externals?
>
> there are different ways to handle this ... e.g. a proper #include,
> import, site-lisp, site-packages, site_perl (i know, this would require
> changes to the language pd)
>
>> 2)
>> ever had trouble with namespace conflicts?  Try solving that when you
>> are using libs.  Sometimes its not possible.
>
> if i have a zexy.pd_linux and a cyclone.pd_linux, i know, which sources
> i have, if i have a "prepend.pd_linux" and a "prepend.pd_linux" i have
> no idea, which prepend i have.
> splitting libs to externals doesn't really help to solve this problem,
> it just changes the responsibility from the developer to the user. but
> it's not helping anything!

Actually, splitting libs into externals and using the geiger namespace  
DOES solve this problem.  You can individually select the object that  
you want but using [cyclone/prepend], [iemlib/prepend], etc.  Yes,  
there are problems with this, like you won't get the right help file  
unless we change the C code, but its much better than the old problems  
with libs.

This is something that has been on my TODO list for a long while, maybe  
I'll do this for the  upcoming multi-platform release.

> i think, the only way to solve the name clashes is _communication_ and
> the ambition to resolve them. but that's a community issue.

Communication is good on the small scale, but as the developer  
community grows, then it becomes a waste of time because all the  
chatter on the list will be about this topic.  The real solution is a  
proper namespace, like Java has with its imports, and this can be done  
using the geiger namespace and a [declare] object and some other minor  
things.

.hc

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