[PD-dev] representing parent patch levels as args

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> On Dec 8, 2008, at 12:21 PM, Claude Heiland-Allen wrote:
> 
>> Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>> So I am just adding support to canvas_name and window_name for   
>>> getting the names from other canvases besides the current one,  
>>> i.e.  parent, toplevel, etc.
>> OK.
>>
>>> I am using the now standard numeric notation  that is used in  
>>> [getdir], iemguts, getdollarzero, etc.
>> Care to give a brief description of that for those that don't  
>> know?  I'd be interested in adding something similar to pdlua, so  
>> that .pd_lua(x) files can access the path(s) of their containing  
>> patch(es), would make sense to have the same numbers.
> 
> 0 = current patch
> 1 = parent
> 2 = parent's parent
> etc.
> 
> One question I have is about the behavior when you specific more  
> levels than exist.  Like [canvas_name 999999].  Should that be an  
> error, warning?  Should it give the toplevel? nothing?  I am guessing  
> it should give the toplevel, with a warning.

in iemguts it gives nothing and no warning.
however, you get an implicit, programmatic warning: no result from the 
object means that the specified parent was illegal.
it is up to the user to print out an error message.

> 
> 
> Agreed, I think a limited set of names, like "parent", "toplevel" and  
> maybe "current" just to make things explicit.  I forgot I had already  
> implemented this, except for the "parent" and "toplevel" part:


how's that done in tot? iirc something like "."?
which would give us:
.
..
/

but anyhow, i don't see a real reason for "current" and "parent" (but 
have no strong opinion about the latter; the former seems much like an 
overkill to me)
the only useful thing i could think of is "toplevel".
but then, the concept of "toplevel" is rather alien to me: everything is 
patches/abstractions. i don't want my patch behave differently just 
because i have created it as an abstraction within a toplevel patch 
instead of a toplevel patch itself.
this is also the reason why i don't fully understand the concept of 
[declare] yet (roman probably agrees with me here).


apart from that, i also have an idea to share:
how about the possibility to modify the parent-dept via arguments.

something like [canvas_name 2+$1]
(definitely not this syntax, it's just to illustrate my idea)

i haven't come up with a real use-case, though...


gfmasdr
IOhannes