[PD] PD i education

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On May 30, 2007, at 10:18 AM, Frank Barknecht wrote:

> Hallo,
> Hans-Christoph Steiner hat gesagt: // Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
>
>> Ideally, having the whole package doesn't get in the way of newbies
>> starting out with the basics.  If it does, that should be fixed.
>> Once it is installed, then newbies can start to explore thru all the
>> examples after the workshop and see where it leads them.  That's a
>> key part of my philosophy here: enabling the spirit of play and
>> exploration.
>
> I think, basically we aren't that far away from each other: The large
> number of examples in pd-extended of course is like a collection of
> texts for the students to study and learn from.
>
> And of course in my workshops, I do use pd-extended, let alone because
> it's the only available collection of externals. (I still would like
> to have it a bit more customizable instead of being so monolithic, and
> I believe the help-files are too "chatty", but that's another story.)
>
> But my main point is this: You can learn what [route] means, you can
> learn how [list prepend] works. But you only learn how to "speak" Pd
> as soon as you understand what this means:
>
>  "something"   [0\
>  |             |
>  [list prepend 2]
>  |
>  [route 0 1 2 3]
>   |  |  |  |  |
>
> With pd-extended it's tempting to just use [demux 4] instead but then
> you wouldn't have gained a deeper understanding of the language, you
> would only know another word.


Yeah, that is definitely true.  Right now, Pd-extended is definitely  
a grab bag of stuff.  Pd-vanilla is not enough to do a lot of things,  
so there needs to be more objects.  Ideally, there would be a  
coherent framework of libraries for Pd, like python, java, etc. etc.

Also, it would be very helpful to define "best practices" when  
patching Pd.  That is still very much undefined in a grand scheme.   
Of course each Pd user has their own practices, but there isn't much  
of a unified body of technique like with other languages.

.hc

>
> Ciao
> -- 
>  Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.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