[PD-dev] generating the standard library: techniques

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Mar 31, 2006, at 10:42 AM, carmen wrote:

>> So the question is, if we're going ahead to create this kind of  
>> standard
>> libs for PD, what should they be written in?
>
> C
>
>>
>
>
>> If we want a lot of functionality fast then python seems like the  
>> best
>> solution
>
> anyone can already use Python, Tcl Scheme, Guile, Ruby etc..
>
> it would be great to have bindings to all the POSIX stuff like fopen 
> () etc , instead of semi-featured inconsistent frontends to a few  
> pieces here and there like the [sprintf] external in cyclone or the  
> [popen] external or bits of fopen() in soundfiler..maybe it can be  
> generated with SWIG.. since stuff like python just hooks into the  
> same things, i dont see why PD cant do it without a  
> middleman..although maybe string/raw-bytes types and some better  
> object-reference mechanisms would help? .. i have no idea how much  
> work it would be  (has anyone on this list implemented a standard  
> library in a scripting language?)


Yes indeed, Pd definitely needs standard libs.  I agree, they should  
be written in C, but they can also be written in Pd whenever  
possible.  I don't necessarily think that POSIX is the best interface  
for Pd, but I have no problem if someone wants to make a POSIX lib.   
I think that would be a nice thing to have in addition to a more Pd- 
ish set of libs to do strings/symbols, files, etc.

Right now, I am just writing some objects as I think of them, but my  
plan is to start designing libraries that are coherently organized  
with consistent interfaces and naming schemes.  I think these new  
libraries should ignore backwards compatibility, because we have  
backwards compatibility if we just leave the existing code in place  
as libdirs.

.hc

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                                                               -  
Eldridge Cleaver