[PD-dev] pow~ in Cyclone [was: Re: stripping down Pd-extended's default libs]

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Feb 18, 2009, at 10:02 AM, Andy Farnell wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:21:28 +0100
> IOhannes m zmoelnig <zmoelnig at iem.at> wrote:
>
>
>>
>> but which [pow~] _is_ the right one, and which one is backward?
>
>
> The vanilla one is correct. It is consistent with mathematical
> and common syntactical properties of other asymmetrical
> (non commutative) operators
>
> subtract  A - B  the second operand is the amount subtracted from  
> the first
> operand (minuend) and the inlet order reflects this.
>
> divide  A/B  the second operand (divisor) is the second inlet  
> position,
> the first operand (dividend) is the first inlet.
>
> So, for exponentiation A^B the first operand (base) is the first
> inlet, and the second operand (exponent) is the second inlet.
>
>
> It's also that the signal domain [pow~] is consistent with
> the existing and long established message domain [pow]
>
> At the risk of causing offence, Cyclone [pow~] made a  mistake
> ordering inlets and I don't think it's good to take the broken
> Microsoft approach of putting historical, backwards compatability
> above correctness and future simplicity of code.
>
> (FWIW I personally had to change dozens of my own patches
> including those already documented in a textbook - the pain
> is worth the gain to do things right.)

Well, the point of cyclone is to be compatible with Max/MSP and all  
its warts.  So if you are trying to run a Max patch in Pd, then  
cyclone's pow~ is correct.

It would be possible to have a somewhat usable system built around  
unique names.  Basically, there would need to be a central registry of  
names, where people would check before naming their objects.  Once a  
name exists, it could not be used again.  So Pd-vanilla's pow~ would  
have to be called something else.  I can't see any other way to do it,  
and this has been discussed since at least 2000.

.hc

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> a.
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> -- 
> Use the source
>
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