[PD-dev] Re: externals!

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Ed Kelly wrote:
> --- Hans-Christoph Steiner <hans at eds.org> wrote:
> 
>>- class_sethelpsymbol() is optional.  Pd will
>>automatically set the  
>>help patch if its not specified.  I recommend that
>>you don't use it  

yes, the externals-howto definitely needs some re-polishing.

> 
> 
> right, but is the default name help-myobject.pd or
> simply myobject.pd?

the "default" is "myobject-help.pd", "help-myobject.pd" and 
"myobject.pd" (in this order).
(note that "myobject" is the part that can be set via the 
class_sethelpsymbol()! not "myobject-help")

there is not a single pure and true "default".
by most people, appending "-help" is considered best for single 
externals where the help-patches live next to the object-file, because 
you can easily find both.

however, i believe that one shouldn't see this as the absolute truth, 
and think what is most appropriate for your specific solution.

e.g. in zexy is used to use the plain helpsymbol, e.g. "zexy/niagara" 
(the path is part of the helpsymbol!); in later versions this changed so 
that now "help-" is _pre_pended to form "help-zexy/niagara";
by doing so, i can be compatible between various pd-versions (older 
versions (<=0.36?) did not support any help pre- or appending), with one 
single link (the directory zexy/ and help-zexy/ are the same).
i consider this as a feature (being compatible with older versions of 
pd), but this might not be a big concern for newer externals.
however, i am currently rethinking zexy's help-patch approach (and most 
likely i will agree with hcs!!)

mfg.asdr.
IOhannes


> externals/ekext is my directory. I have on several
> occaisions cvs-ed voicing_detector~ and zeroxpos~, but
> they do not appear to have worked, despite the cvs
> reporting back that no conflicts were found? Last time
> I cvs-ed them was yesterday...

at least i can check them out (there is a 
externals/ekext/zeroxpos~/zeroxpos~.c file which has a log entry from 
02.Dec)
you might have to use "cvs up -d" to get new directories,


mfg.asd.r
IOhannes