[PD] external loading suggestion

Lex Ein lex_ein at f-m.fm
Sun Jul 18 22:56:22 CEST 2004


Problem: Unique objects exist in more than one library with the same 
name, but
different function, with no ombudsman or czar to arbitrate who gets the 
name. 
This forces library loading order to be an issue: IEM's gate vs 
cyclone's gate.

So I offer two thoughts: (if this has been discussed before, I couldn't 
find it.)
1. If, at load time, external objects maintained their library name 
persistently, then
objects could be absolutely selected from a particular library at 
creation time in the patch.
This would eliminate the effect of library loading order and increase 
reliability.
So instead of
  [prob 2 4 5]
someone publishing a patch could specify
  [mJlib/prob 2 4 5]
to guarantee correct operation, and alert the user immediately to the 
required library,
with no further documentation needed..

2. If Pd had a option to enable/disable "object path display" in the GUI,
ALL object names could be displayed with their library path or not, in 
edit mode.

Advantages:
1. No need to make up ridiculous non-mnemonic names for objects which have
nothing to do with their function, simply to avoid a dreaded name collision.
2. No more torture for users trying to figure out why patches don't work,
especially for objects without documentation which shall remain unnamed 
here.

Disadvantage(s):
Not backwards compatible. However, the patch or abstraction can be 
easily edited
as text to remove the offending path, and it STILL alerts the user to 
the need
for the correct library..

It's just a thought.

L





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