[PD] Getting the best out of the rewrite (was: Re: pow~, etc. in Pd-extended 0.42.5)

Hans-Christoph Steiner hans at at.or.at
Thu Nov 12 16:57:18 CET 2009


I think its good to get to a point where we don't have to worry much  
about backwards compatibility.  IMHO, the easiest way to do that is  
embed library and other settings in each patch rather than having  
libraries loaded by default.   The pow~ issue highlights that.

You can also already use naming schemes like cyclone/prepend, iemlib/ 
prepend, etc.

.hc

On Nov 12, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Ivica Ico Bukvic wrote:

> FWIW, I recently listened to a really entertaining presentation of a
> computer systems security expert and one thing he pointed out that  
> IMHO is
> currently really bogging Pd development is legacy support.
>
> If PD is currently undergoing a complete rewrite of the GUI this may  
> be a
> good opportunity to also revisit external naming scheme. I  
> understand that
> there has been a lot of work done by Hans and others to make pd- 
> extended
> easier to use, yet many problems remain. What if we simply all agree  
> to do
> fundamental changes to how externals work with the understanding  
> that we are
> effectively breaking backwards compatibility (which is not that big  
> of a
> deal, simply use your favorite editor and search/replace offending  
> objects
> and you are done) and make the whole thing a lot simpler?
>
> For instance, each external object could be simply retitled to  
> cyclone_pow~
> or iemlib_pow~ or whatever. We've been effectively doing this with  
> DISIS
> objects and have had no problems whatsoever with trivial issues such  
> as what
> folder they need to go into and where is their help file supposed to  
> go
> (e.g. pd-extended still fails to load proper help files and has a  
> myriad of
> other problems).
>
> Of course, this is not as easy as it sounds:
>
> What objects are considered a part of the vanilla pd-extended? I would
> simply say iem, gem, and pd are vanilla are it and everything else is
> renamed.
>
> What about the trouble of remembering what object does what? Well,  
> if 0.43
> will have a nice right-click menu with all objects listed in there  
> and if we
> do good cross-referencing documentation, this should not be as  
> difficult
> and/or confusing (certainly no more than typing cyclone/pow~ or  
> whatever).
>
> etc. Basically, I think this would in the long run be a lot easier  
> as we
> would simply end-up having only one folder for all help files and  
> only one
> folder for all externals. No sub-folders, no complex paths, lost/ 
> mixed-up
> help files, no unusual workarounds within Pd.
>
> Just my 1-cents worth...
>
> Ico
>
>
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