[PD] [*] vs [*~]

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Dec 30, 2006, at 10:41 PM, David NG McCallum wrote:

> On 27/12/06, Tim Blechmann <tim at klingt.org> wrote:
>
>> > Do you mean that it would be difficult to figure out what's a  
>> DSP object
>> > and what's not, in terms of figuring out what's in the DSP chain?
>>
>> from the user point of view, i think, it's a good idea, to have a
>> specific separation between dsp and messaging, because both work with
>> very different concepts.
>
> Maybe I shouldn't be jumping into this discussion so late, with little
> programming knowledge, but…
>
> If we're to think about the metaphor of dataflow languages, which is
> essentially modelled after electronics and circuits (and I'm thinking
> about analogue circuits, although I'm sure a similar argument could be
> made for digital), then there should be no difference between
> "control" and "audio," because they're the exact same thing.
>
> We might think that separating control and audio makes perfect sense
> from a user standpoint---I even think so. But I'm pretty sure that we
> only think that way because we've learned to think within the dataflow
> paradigm. If this distinction never existed, we wouldn't think twice
> about mixing the types, because there wouldn't be any types.
>
> I remember learning the difference between floats and ints. From a
> user's standpoint, why bother? I remember resigning myself to "well
> that's annoying, but I guess it's necessary." Why does Pd not
> distinguish, but Max does?
>
> As far as I understand, the difference between control and audio data
> exists purely for computational efficiency, and has no real conceptual
> basis. (Maybe I'm asking for a beatdown with that statement…)

Yes, a lot of this kind of stuff is done for efficiency's sake, like  
messages vs. audio rate data.  Its hard to get around that.  But the  
strong types of symbol vs. float are an human-computer interface  
question.

.hc

>
> D!
>
>
> -- 
> __ _  _  _  __ _
> http://sintheta.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> PD-list at iem.at mailing list
> UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/ 
> listinfo/pd-list


------------------------------------------------------------------------

"[W]e have invented the technology to eliminate scarcity, but we are  
deliberately throwing it away to benefit those who profit from  
scarcity."        -John Gilmore