[PD] route outputs lists instead of floats

[Ian Smith-Heisters]

Tim Blechmann wrote:
> 
> more generally, it might be a good idea to think of an improved list
> handling (similar to scheme or python) ...
> or forbid empty lists (= bang, which is done) and one element lists
> (which should be atoms)

Not sure about scheme, but given its relation to Lisp, this may be true: 
empty lists are allowable in Lisp, and very useful. Just today I was 
working on a problem in Pd, constructing a list dynamically, where empty 
lists would have been handy (the cyclone prepend object doesn't do empty 
lists). It required some obnoxious extra wiring because I needed to take 
the first atom in the potential list and route it out elsewhere so it 
could be prepended to the second atom, then I could start adding on the 
new atoms as they were created.

Lisp is beautiful and easy to use becuase it's logical: there aren't 
(m)any exceptions to the rules. A list can hold anything. That can be 
nothing, atoms, or other lists. The more exceptions you add the more 
confusing things get imho.

Of course Lisp also ends up with obnoxious things like trying to select 
an atom and it being the wrong type because it's actually a one-atom list.

Just my two cents.

Ian

> 
> cheers ... tim
> 


-- 
Ian Smith-Heisters
http://www.0x09.com