[PD] symbols and route

[Roman Haefeli]

On Sun, 2008-11-23 at 11:41 +0100, Damian Stewart wrote:
> this has probably been discussed before, but i don't have internet right
> now and so cannot check.
> 
> i'm trying to build a generic store-anything object. see attached. but i'm
> having some trouble getting around the weird way Pd seems to handle
> symbols, particularly with [route].
> 
> according to the help patch for [route]:
> 
> 'To avoid confusion between, say, the number 5 and the list contining only
> the number 5, both messages match "float", and ditto for symbols.

yeah. from what i understand this means:
'list bla' and 'symbol bla' are treated the same. if i am not totally
mistaken, 'list yeah' is converted to 'symbol yeah' by many classes
anyway. try 

[list yo(
|
[print]

for lists with only one element, the selector 'list' is converted to
either 'float' or 'symbol'. an incoming message with an 'anything'
selector (for instance 'mysym') is _not_ converted to a 'symbol'
message. i think, that is the cause of your confusion. 

>  An empty
> list matches "bang". In Pd these are all considered special cases of lists.'

> so, by my reading of this, in particular, the bit that says "and ditto for
> symbols", if i go
> 
> [route symbol float]
> 
> and then send in
> 
> [mysym (
> 
> the 1st outlet should send out 'mysym', yes? this isn't what's happening.
> in fact, the 3rd outlet is sending out just 'mysym'. if i send in


because 'mysym' is not a symbol message, which means in pd lingo:
"it does not have the 'symbol' selctor"
 
> [symbol mysym (
> 
> then the 1st outlet sends out 'symbol mysym'. but, if i want to route the
> 'mysym' message somewhere:
> 
> [route mysym]
> 
> it never gets picked up on if it is being sent out as 'symbol mysym'

yeah, because the selector is 'symbol' then, not 'mysym'.

> ... so. it seems i need to use [select] and not [route] in this case.

in which case?
if you want to match both, 'mysym' and 'symbol mysym', i'd put a 
[list trim]
in front of route. 

>  if
> i'm not mistaken, the help patch for [route] needs updating.

i guess, the help patch is correct, though a bit a confusing.

roman




	
		
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