[PD] $1, message objects and pdsend

[simon wise]

This is my first post but I've been lurking on the list for a while - 
and learnt lots - thanks for all the work on pd and the lively 
discussions.

When using $1, $2 etc in a message object the behaviour is odd: if a 
float is the first element of a list then it is used as $1 - all the 
examples I can find in the docs show lists of floats only. If a symbol 
is first it is ignored and the second symbol is used for $1.

I assume this is so the first symbol can be special eg: 'set' and to 
fit with the general pattern of arguments, lists etc. but it would be 
nice to add a couple of symbol list examples to the help file to 
illustrate this difference - maybe from the attached patch.

My problem is that I am making an subpatch to include in lots of my 
patches so I can stop pd rendering or quit from another machine if it 
gets overloaded while running GEM, and so I can easily run patches 
-nogui. I want to do it with standard pd so it is as portable as 
possible. The way I've set it up I want to send messages to various 
receive objects but I'm stuck trying to add 'list' to the head of a the 
text from netreceive without using external libraries - see my patch.

There is also a consistent crash: when pdsend has been connected, then 
the patch containing netreceive is closed and reopened, and then pdsend 
sends some more messages.
This is on OSX 10.3.8, Pd version 0.38 TEST13, GEM 0.90 and on Pd 
version 0.37.0. The terminal reports 'Bus error'. I've included bits of 
the console reports in case they is any use.

When the pd side works smoothly I'll make a simple OSX wrapper for 
pdsend with buttons and a text box so it is very easy to use. Also a 
few sliders so I can share the patches that rely on running nogui and 
that I control with midi hardware. For now I can just type an extra 
word in the terminal each time I want to do a send, and wait till the 
patch is open before launching pdsend


Thanks,

Simon Wise

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