[PD] definitions of data types
Hans-Christoph Steiner
hans at eds.org
Mon Feb 6 22:11:43 CET 2006
On Feb 6, 2006, at 3:25 PM, Martin Peach wrote:
> Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>
>>
>> On Feb 6, 2006, at 2:05 PM, Martin Peach wrote:
>>
>>> Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>>>
>>>> Here are some attempts at definitions:
>>>>
>>>> list: a series of 2 or more elements whose first element is either
>>>> the selector "list", or a float, which causes the "list" selector
>>>> to be implied. A 0-element list is a bang, a 1-element list is
>>>> either a float or a symbol, are there any exceptions where a 0-
>>>> or 1-element lists actually exists? I suppose only in a message
>>>> box.
>>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>>> selector series: a series of 2 or more elements whose first element
>>>> is neither the selector "list" nor a numeric element. But it
>>>> needs a better term.
>>>>
>>> I would call that an implicit list, and to be consistent with the
>>> way float works, it should have list prepended to it by pd and
>>> otherwise become indistinguishable from list.
>>
>>
>> But its not a list because objects that deal with lists say so.
>> "list" is a keyword in Pd, so we need to define these things using
>> other words. Try this to see what I mean:
>>
>> [one 2 three four(
>> |
>> [route list]
>>
>
> Yes but to me
> [1 two three four(
> and
> [one two three four(
> are both lists and pd shouldn't treat them differently as it now does.
This is one of the sources of confusion, but its a difficult question
of how _should_ Pd do it. So for now, I am trying to document all the
details of Pd actually does it from within Pd.
> From m_pd.h these are all the atom types:
>
> typedef enum
> {
> A_NULL,
> A_FLOAT,
> A_SYMBOL,
> A_POINTER,
> A_SEMI,
> A_COMMA,
> A_DEFFLOAT,
> A_DEFSYM,
> A_DOLLAR,
> A_DOLLSYM,
> A_GIMME,
> A_CANT
> } t_atomtype;
>
> There is no list atom-type. A list is just a list of atoms. The
> existence of more than one atom in a message implies that it is a
> list.
>
> Martin
I put the atom types any other things into this wiki page. Please add
anything that's missing, especially documentation of odd cases of
message/data handling. At the bottom are links to Frank's and my stabs
at definitions.
http://puredata.org/dev/PdDefinitions
.hc
________________________________________________________________________
____
"Information wants to be free."
-Stewart Brand
More information about the Pd-list
mailing list