[PD] httpget: fun with tcpclient and pdstring

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Thu, 5 Mar 2009, Martin Peach wrote:

> Yes it seems to me a string manipulation object like [strncmp] should be able 
> to accept symbols, floats, lists of floats, and messages naming arrays, on 
> any of its inlets that are meant to accept strings.

By floats, you mean a single float representing a single character? If 
not, then I suppose that any string made of individual float messages 
would have to be converted to a list of floats first, so that it goes well 
with all equivalent forms that use a single message per string.

But now, La Question Qui Tue: if you do a [string append] on two strings 
of different format, what should be the format of the output?

Actually, there's another killer question: if you do a [string append] on 
two arrays, and that it is agreed that the output should go in an array, 
in which array does the output go?

> Maybe it should be [arrble $1( or [tabray $1( so as not to prefer one over 
> the other.

The problem with that is that the big-endians will think that "arrble" 
connotes racial discrimination in favour of arrays whereas little-endians 
will claim that it is "tabray" that is favoured. A more politically 
correct way of constructing a new term would be by interleaving the 
letters from both words (inspired by INTERCAL), like "atrarbalye" or 
"taarbrlaey". This does not really solve the problem but it reduces it by 
a large factor so that you can conveniently sweep it under the carpet 
without making too much of an unsightly lump. This is the glory of 
Psychological Engineering at work.

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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal, Québec