[PD] a few beginner's questions

[robbert van hulzen]

i don't think the list would have to be a lot friendlier, and splitting
things into beginners and überusers would not make me happy. i've been
lurking on the list for a while now, learning lots, enjoying the different
angles, and happily skipping things that are too far over my head. also, by
reading about topics of different kinds and levels, i'm getting a good
feeling for where my own limits are, what i want to learn and what i'd
rather leave to other people etc. so there, my two pennies as an absolute
beginner who's enjoying the list.
on to the real reason for my post.

did anything happen to the pan~ object? i upgraded to
pd-0.39.2-extended-test5 a little while ago (if i'm correct this is the
latest stable version, even though i got it from hcs' site rather than from
www.puredata.org?), and pan~ doesn't create. i suppose i could drag it into
the new app package? where does it reside in the old one? the os X search
system isn't very helpful, it just doesn't show. because it's in the
package?

then i was wondering whether there is a way to add more startup paths
without using the -path flag, simply to keep things a bit tidy. i had some
trouble adding paths to the flag, but now that i'm trying to reproduce the
problem so i can quote the message i got in the pd window, it all seems to
work fine.

re the tutorials (hcs and others): i'm trying to learn pd by going through
msp's examples, and some other tutorials. not very systematically, as i find
i've forgotten specific info when i need it. also, there seems to be quite a
jump between learning about printing "hello world" and trying to get some
musical results. i try to learn by looking at other patches, thinking lots,
and finding / using the tutorials that will explain what i need. which
usually gets me to learn about other things too. kind of circular learning
(?). i find other people's patches very helpful and inspiring, but the idea
of including The Patch with the distribution doesn't sound appealing at all.
the reason why i'm attracted to pd is to figure out what i want and then how
to get that. if i want to start producing music straight away, i'll get
ableton live (which is of course a useful and inspiring application) or sth
like that.

robbert