[PD] [pd REFERENCE] format [was: Re: Pd META: Author/Help Patch Authors]

[Jonathan Wilkes]

--- On Sat, 9/19/09, Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca> wrote:

> From: Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>
> Subject: [PD] [pd REFERENCE] format [was: Re: Pd META: Author/Help Patch Authors]
> To: pd-list at iem.at
> Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009, 9:43 PM
> 
> On Sat, 5 Sep 2009, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> 
> > I've been assuming that one of the aims of tags (i.e.,
> keywords) is that there would be a search window in the
> browser so you can search for relevant help patches/tutorial
> patches/ etc.  Or maybe an actual patch, since Hans has
> said that the keywords should be "parsable in pd." There are
> already some categories from which simple, standard keywords
> may be used, but for some terms like "frequency modulation"
> there's the aforementioned problem of the space between the
> words.  Given that, frequency_modulation is certainly
> one solution, and users can get used to using underscores
> when searching, but why not also include "fm" and
> "modulation" in case the user happens to type that (which
> would be completely reasonable)?
> 
> Typically, with tags, the user has access to the list of
> all currently existing tags, so that the user can choose
> from there. You could have a feature to search by regexp
> and/or thesaurus on the list of tags, but when you look for
> a tag in patches, the goal is sort of to have one concept
> per tag and one tag per concept, no synonyms, no homonyms.
> 
> > > What's a tag?
> > A keyword.
> 
> That's pretty terse. What are the expectations about tags?
> what about synonyms and homonyms? what do the tags mean,
> that the whole text of the patch doesn't?
> 
> Because, what's the advantage of searching in tags vs
> searching in the whole text?

I thought it was mostly a speed issue, in which searching for 3 or 4 
tags in a single file would be quicker than doing a full text search 
of every help patch.  But if the user has access to all the tags and 
goes from there, I see your point about naming conventions.

> 
> > I saw your nick in the irc discussion of the PDDP,
> didn't you actually
> > take part in some of these decisions?
> 
> What??... what does "take part" mean to you? I don't
> understand.

I remember reading something about the "desiredata people" wanting 
related objects in their own subpatch, and I think I read some comments 
you had about putting general object behavior in a centralized location 
like an abstraction, rather than repeating it for every help file.

> 
> I don't recall my opinions being represented in PDDP, but
> then, I don't recall trying to push them.

Why didn't you push (for) them?

-Jonathan

> 
>  _ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________
> _____________________ ...
> | Mathieu Bouchard, Montréal, Québec. téléphone:
> +1.514.383.3801
> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Pd-list at iem.at
> mailing list
> UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
>