[PD] "anythings" vs. "lists" (again)

[Larry Troxler]

Greetings again to the PD list.

I'm sorry to report that I think I am still "not getting it" regarding
the concept of "messages", "lists", and "anythings".

I am running into this confusion in the course of making an object that
calls into "Scheme In On Day". Eliminating lots of details, let's say I
want to create an object that simply echoes its inlet to its outlet,
whatever types they may be.

I am using class_addanything to handle messages at the (first) inlet. If
I send a message [a 1 2], for example, then the argv is the atoms "a",
"1", and "2". But if I send [10 20], argv are "float" and "10". So it
seems in this case the "20" is dropped. But yet I know it is possible
for an object to correctly receive a message like this, because [print]
and [line~] handle this case ok.

I suspect that using class_addanything might not be enough, and I need
also a class_addlist and possibly other handlers (in which case
"addanything" might be innapropriately named?), but I'm afraid I'm still
in the dark as to how this all works. 

I humbly suspect that probably the answer would be simple if the concept
of PD messages were better described somewhere. The PD code is fairly
well commented, but I find it difficult to put the pieces of the puzzle
together into the big picture.

I think it would be very instructive to have an example object in the
distribution that simply echoes its input to its output. Can someone
point me in this direction perhaps? If I get enough information, then as
payment I will gladly code up such an object an post it.

Best Regards,

Larry Troxler