[PD] pdmtl abstractions questions and comments

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Mon, 2 Jul 2007, Thomas O Fredericks wrote:

> We used "!" (an upside down "i" that stands for interface) before 
> instead of "_"

"!" is used by Max to mean "swapped". IMHO that's a better idea than 
jMax's [inv+] and [inv*] meaning swapped [-] and [/] respectively, but 
GridFlow still uses jMax's syntax, for the obvious reasons.

> but we had to continuously escape it in command lines and 
> scripts. So we settled on "_" instead. Of course, we would have liked to 
> use "#", but Gridflow's use of it is much better :)
>
> I have been using the pmdtl folder namespaces for a year now and have
> NEVER had a similar problem. I tried replicating the example in a
> practical context, but I cannot. This issue is a theoretical problem
> that never happens in a practical context.

No, it's not theoretical, it's just false. There are problems that are 
similar to that, but knowing pd's implementation, I should've known 
better. See my mail to Patrice Colet today about this.

>>> Why not put stuff outside of categories? (Does everything have to be 
>>> in a category?)
> Yes, everything does have to be in a category. This constraint makes
> for an environment that is especially useful for newbies and resolves
> a lot of conflicts.

verb/is article/this noun/sentence adjective/easier prep/to verb/read ?

> I teach a lot of Max/Msp and the "new object" box is a godsend for
> them ( 
> http://www.makingthings.com/teleo/products/documentation/teleo_user_guide/images/max_tut_1_new.png
> ). Browsing and selecting the right abstraction for the job is a lot
> simpler with this system.

What about http://artengine.ca/desiredata/gallery/completions2.gif ?

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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal QC Canada