[PD] Help Docs: element vs. item
Mathieu Bouchard
matju at artengine.ca
Wed Aug 12 22:07:29 CEST 2009
On Tue, 11 Aug 2009, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> The idea of that section of the PdDefintions wiki is to collect all bits of
> text that contribute to the definition of what is a symbol/float/atom/etc.
> That's why there are many bits. If there is anything missing please add it.
In the Humanities, you can define abstract words the postmodern way,
collecting little bits and talking about a word until it acquires a
meaning. In a computer programme, it doesn't matter what the word means to
the users or even whether the users think of the thing as being abstract:
symbols and floats are very concrete things that have very precise
definitions that don't leave a lot of room for interpretational variation.
So I think we can leave the mosaïc of testimonies aside and just read the
source, so that we get back to what Pd is instead of what we think it is.
> Well, this defintion comes from the "object boxes" section, not message boxes
> or messages. There is no discussion of messages in the section where that is
> defined. But that's a minor detail.
> http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/x2.htm#s1.2
Ah, well, when I read that, it never crossed my mind that I had to look up
the bibliographical reference to actually understand what's written there.
That's what I mean by "out of context"... the PdDefinition page is
unusually dependent on its bibliographical references... doesn't stand on
its own.
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| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801, Montréal, Québec
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