[PD] PD usability

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, martin pi wrote:
> some points to this - or "why is pd really not friendly to the user"
>
> 1. it has modes (as opposed to modeless environments (this is why
> people do not like vi, too). modes are hard to understand - especially
> for mac people since the mac interface is traditionally modeless

Modes are useful to reduce the number of different functions that need a
key-binding or hot-spot. In VI, this is there because it allows a
typewriter-trained person to keep his/her hands on the main part of the
keyboard, while keeping the amount of pressing of modifier-keys quite low.
In MAX/PD/JMAX this seems to be because there would be too many different
clickable functions in a too small space, so some things are only
available in Run mode, and some only in Edit mode.

However the presence of those modes is consistent with the fact that
what you can do in edit mode doesn't affect what happens inside an object
(except when you create or delete one), while what you can do in run mode
affects what happens inside an object but not the rest... for example, the
Undo function will not undo messages that have been sent through the
message system due to a click in run mode (or whatever else) ! So there
may be more to modes than what I said in the previous paragraph...

> yet it is mostly verb-noun based thus good in the general flow

could you please explain this concept (verb-noun based) and how it opposes
to other possible designs, or give references to webpages explaining it.

________________________________________________________________
Mathieu Bouchard                       http://artengine.ca/matju