[PD] [inlet], [outlet].

[Larry Troxler]

On Thursday 08 May 2003 21:14, Miller Puckette wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I always intended for "float 99" and "list 99" to be exactly
> equivalent in Pd.  I think this has caused problems in trying to
> make certain objects compatible with Max, in which they may be
> treated distinctly (but never really _should_, I don't think, since
> it's too comfusing.  Also, "list" with no argument is the same as
> "bang"...
>
> cheers
> Miller
>

Oh man. For some reason, I still have some kind of mental block to 
understanding how the PD type system works. Once I thought I understood, 
until I read message such as these on the list, that throw me into confusion 
again.

Is there a document somewhere that is current and that explains all of this?

I am sooo confused!!!!

For example, Miller, you say that "float 99" should be equivalent to "list 
99".

Now, first of all, one would think that a list of one element is not 
equivalent to a single element by itself (at least coming from the lisp 
world). Actually, though, this is easily resolved, since you could consider a 
PD atom as equivalent to a single-atom PD list.

The bigger question is, to my mind, is why "list 99" is equivalent to "float 
99" and not just "99". Presumably, the atom after "list" is somehow 
automatically interpreted to be a float, so then why in the non-list case, do 
we need "float 99" and not just "99"?

Larry