[PD] changing the look of Pd to be more readable

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Sat, 3 Nov 2007, Luke Iannini (pd) wrote:

> I look at this as the equivalent of properly indented code; a feature 
> I'd really appreciate is the equivalent of auto-indenting since I 
> obsessively line up my Pd patches.

I thought about auto-positioning of objects and figured out that a way to 
conciliate many potentially conflicting rules about placement of objects, 
each rule could be defined as a force that pull objects towards their 
ideal spot relative to that rule. The object will then tend towards an 
intersection of the ideal spots, or if there is none, it will tend towards 
somewhere between several ideal spots.

So, for example, there would be a first force to ensure that objects don't 
overlap. It would repulse objects from other objects, though not in a way 
usually seen in physics. A second rule would tend to align a box with the 
boxes it is connected to, with priority on left inlet connections, and a 
third rule would tend towards the previous object in the chain. More rules 
can be added and all rules can be weighted in order to adjust the priority 
of the rules. By making rules combine in different ways (variable 
weighting), different systems of priorities can be made.

This could take an external and a patch, or some tcl code in desiredata.

> And finally, it pains me that much of this work we're discussing has 
> already been done by Mathieu and Chun : (!  I have a dream, where DD and 
> PD and PD-E are one.

DD-E is "coming soon", that is, almost as soon as the rest of DD that is 
not really coming closer at this point...

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