[PD] Finding "$0" and dealing with it in messages

[Phil Stone]

Roman Haefeli wrote:
> This is obviously a loop. All this has been said and proposed before in the
> thread [1], that has been posted by alex porres a few posts back. Sorry for
> not having brought any new perspectives into the discussion, but having just
> repeated what has been said already.
>   

Hi Roman,


I think the fact that this is an eternally-recurring topic points to 
just how irritating this one little foible of Pd is -- it's confusing to 
newbies, and it's annoying to more experienced programmers.


I want to address the point you brought up in the first message:

> $0 in messages is only special in the sense, that it has no meaning at all.
> it wouldn't make it less special to use it as a container for canvas
> identifier in message boxes. $-variables in objects have a different meaning
> from $-variables in message boxes, no matter what. I understand, that it
> would make patching often a lot easier, but conceptually it would be
> exceptional to make $0 in message-boxes be replaced by the
> canvas-identifier, while all other $n-variables in message-boxes get
> replaced by the n-th element of the incoming list.

But $0 is exceptional in *all* cases!  Its use in objects has a very 
different meaning than the use of $1, $2.... in objects.  Yet no one 
calls for eliminating $0 from object boxes -- why is the same argument 
repeated over and over as justification for its prohibition in message 
boxes?  I just don't understand this.


If only (as many have said) "$0" had been written as "#0" or something 
else completely un-encumbered with ideas about what "$" must mean in Pd.


> The only thing i don't really get: Why seems there some agreement, that
> using $0 to get the selector could be confusing?


Well, I think that would make things even worse - further muddying the 
waters, as it were, by adding yet another meaning to the dollar-sign.  I 
don't see it as any more consistent or "pure", given the unique role 
that $0 has in *all* cases.


When all is said and done, things in the Pd world will go on as they 
have, and we won't really suffer because of this one little grain of 
sand in our shell.  But we probably will continue to discuss it every 
few months!


Best,

Phil
http://www.pkstonemusic.com/pubmusic.html