[PD-dev] abstractions

[mescalinum at gmail.com]

Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, mescalinum at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> btw such "range" is very feasible with only pd language and dynamic 
>> patching.
>
> It can't be used in practice. Try putting it in a patch, save the 
> patch, reload the patch. All connections from the outlets of this 
> [range] will fail. This is because it uses [loadbang] instead of 
> [initbang], and because [initbang] does not exist. This proves one of 
> my points.
>
> Then this patch can't be edited with plain pd because this changes the 
> object numbering, which is not written anywhere in a patch, and 
> changing the object numbering breaks the dynamic patching. This is the 
> sort of problem that was solved with the introduction of assembly 
> language as a replacement to machine language... and frankly I'd 
> rather program in C than in either of those. This proves another one 
> of my points. But on top of that, you can't edit that abstraction and 
> resave it while pd is not running in -noloadbang mode.
>
> Thanks for providing the example that illustrates the two main 
> problems that I see with what is about the best that one can do with 
> normal pd (even with externals).
>
> The third issue is that your version lacks the dynamic inlets, but 
> that's a detail, and I know you can do it, and it's not worth fixing 
> it until your abstraction can be used in practice.
>
> The workaround for the lack of [initbang] is to set an arbitrary limit 
> on number of dynamic inlets/outlets, have them created in advance, and 
> delete the extraneous inlets/outlets at [loadbang] time so that the 
> object looks nice. Sort of underwhelming, but it would work for most 
> purposes.
>
thanks for your argument.
I just filed a feature request for pd [1] and I hope someone finds the 
time to implement it.
I could do it perhaps, but I'm really busy with school right now.

Best regards,
Federico Ferri


1: 
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2013658&group_id=55736&atid=478073