[PD] pdmtl abstractions questions and comments

[Thomas O Fredericks]

> [...] Without their
> prefix -- [list]-abs is using a dash instead of an underscore or a
> slash, because underscores are harder to type on german keyboards and
> because not following guidelines leads to more fun in life [...]

Wow, talk about cheap thrills :)
Doesn't the German keyboard have a "/" key over the number 8 on the
numpad (that is if you are not using a laptop)?

>  Unless you stick to unused names only,
> you always need to keep the prefix in the object name.

The pdmtl abstractions REQUIRE that you keep the folder prefix. The
prefix IS part of the abstraction's name. But this is not a problem
because it takes as long to type list/whatever than list-whatever.

> [...] objects
> like [list-abs] or [list-moses] are impossible to use in Pd anyways,
> as [abs] and [moses] are builtins.

I created a version of list/abs in our svn repository. It works just
fine. I do not understand what is impossible?

> [..] So
> people start to use objects called [list-abs/list-abs] just because
> for packaging reasons, list-abs.pd in pd-extended lives in a directory
> called "list-abs". Now that's what I call redundancy: Instead of one,
> we get two prefixes. At least my help-files still work.

This is definitely ridiculous. Tthe pdmtl abstractions installation
instructions require one line of text to be added to the path and
another as a startup flag. We are currently working on adding these by
default to pd-extended.

> pdmtl may face a similar or worse problem when people start using
> objects with names like [pdmtl/list/op]. Here not only help-files will be
> broken, as the help file "list/op-help.pd" uses an object called
> [list/op] which is unavailable unless "pdmtl" is in the path.
> Actually all objects using [list/x]-objects are broken then!

Once both lines are added to pd's configuration everything works
great. Even the help files. However, creating an abstraction with
[pdmtl/list/op] is not recommended. The same goes for creating a
[cyclone/counter]. Instancing in this fashion in simply too long
(while you simply had to add cyclone to your path) and breaks
compatibility with other people's distributions (for example people
that use the cylone.pd_linux instead of the expanded folder or
whatever it is called).

Tom