[PD] API for manipulating a patch in real time

[Miller Puckette]

I can imagine simply writing an example program to do this (putting some
boilerplate first and then a rewritable main at the end).  It would
look more like this:

/* don't touch me */
....
/* but replace the following with your code */

main()
{
   pd_startthread("arg1 arg2...");
   	/* do anything you want */
   pd_send("foo bang;");
	/* etc */
   pd_endthread();
}

... the idea would be that pd itself would live in a subthread and you'd
be able to send messages to it and even somehow get return callbacks.
This wouldn't be like pd~ at all, since in this scenario Pd would open 
audio and MIDI as needed and schedule itself (with pd~ the subprocess
slaves itself synchronously to the parent).  Another restriction would
be that you could only have one Pd thread (it isn't thread-safe!).  On
the other hand, this would work fine in Windows, which pd~ doesn't (since
windows appears not to offer pipes unless you add a library with funny
licensing restrictions.)

Would that be a useful thing to have?

cheers
Miller

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 11:28:22AM +0000, Andy Farnell wrote:
> 
> 
> Yes! Even if it's already 'doable' having a clearly
> abstracted libPd with documented API is clearly the next
> step in Pure Data development. This should be an overriding
> consideration in all current dev directions.
> 
> 
> On Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:07:04 +0900
> Chris McCormick <chris at mccormick.cx> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 09:05:16AM +0100, IOhannes m zmoelnig wrote:
> > > Zach Dwiel wrote:
> > > >Hello
> > > 
> > > first of all, there is no official API.
> > 
> > It would be so nice if there were an easy way to invoke Pd as a library
> > from within other code. I know it's possible to do this (Spore, pd~,
> > RjDj, Pd browser plugin), it's just that it requires writing a bunch of
> > non-trivial support code that must be re-written every time. It
> > shouldn't have to. Pd -nogui could and should be as easily invokeable as
> > any other library.
> > 
> > For example, I just wish it was possible to go:
> > 
> > #include <pd.h>
> > 
> > *PDInstance pd = make_pd_instance();
> > pd->init(/* ..args.. */);
> > 
> > while (1)
> > {
> > 	/* Do stuff here */
> > 	pd->schedloop();
> > 	/* Do other stuff here */
> > 	pd->sendMessage(";my-receiver bang;");
> > }
> > 
> > Ok maybe not quite as easy as that, but I reckon you'd see Pd used as
> > the audio engine for loads of other apps and games if this was simple.
> > There has already been interest from e.g. the Blender project and the
> > several other apps that already embed Pd.
> > 
> > If this is already easy and I have just missed something obvious, please
> > let me know. (Sorry for not contributing code.)
> > 
> > Best,
> > 
> > Chris.
> > 
> > -------------------
> > http://mccormick.cx
> > 
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Use the source
> 
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