[PD][proposal] pd externs/extra/abs policy

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Frank Barknecht wrote:
> Mark Khemma hat gesagt: // Mark Khemma wrote:
>
> The two 'official' places are /usr/lib/pd/externs and /usr/lib/pd/extra, 
> 
> [if someone could explain the difference, I'd like to know why there are
> two standard directories in the PD distribution.]
>
it's quite simple (i believe):
guenter started his linux port of pd with this pd/externs folder that 
was searched automatically (?)
miller then adopted this idea, but unfortunately chose pd/extra as a 
standard search-path.
so in a "normal" (miller) pd-distribution you should only have a 
pd/extra path.
in a debianized distribution (guenter) you will have the (now 
additional) pd/externs. distributions modified at iem are likely to be 
derived from guenter's.


anyhow, there is no reason to have two different directories for the 
same purpose.
additionally, the pd/externs directory is not searched by default, so 
users have to add the search-path to there .pdrc/startup-script by hand 
anyway if they want to use it.

i am not sure, whether it really is a good idea, to use the pd/extra for 
normal libraries such as Gem,...
i would prefer (but i admit: it's mainly for historical reasons, since 
most of our pc's here are already setup with this ominous pd/externs 
folder) three independant search-paths (instead of two), with a clear 
policy::
-- pd/extra : for extras that ship with pd (toys, like fiddle~,... 
everything that is in the pd/extra by default now); it should *not* be 
touched by add-on installations (see below)
-- pd/externs : for add-on external libraries (such as motex, ggee,...) 
and only libraries (only *.dll/*.pd_linux/*.pd_irix)
-- pd/abs : for add-on abstractions (such as parts of the iemlib-library)

mfg.cd.sar
IOhannes