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

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Alexandre Porres wrote:
> IOhannes:
>> as for $$ being available in messages: i don't think
>> this can easily be done the way things are right know.
>> and really, i don't think it is that important :-)
> 
> come back to my former inquiry, I am sorry if you told me this already and i
> lost it. But then;
> 
> - Do you think $0 could easily be available in messages? How come?

i say "i don't think this can easily be done". this i mean, not the
opposite. i come to the conclusion because i read the code (that was
years ago, i might be mistaken so please forgive me if its plain wrong):
you need a context to evaluate $0 correctly. a message does not have
this canvas-context.
(this might really be total nonsense; but this is what i seem to remember)

i _think_ that it makes sense to see it as such: objects are citizens of
a canvas, messages are something entirely different. they are
information passed between the citizens.
they are not 2nd class citizens, they belong to another realm!


once you got that, everything is simple :-)


> - Is it a general consensuous that it aint't worth bothering about? Why?

i don't think its general consensus.
it's what _i_ think.
i don't need $0 in message-boxes so often.
i need to construct messages containing $0 for dynamic patching every
now and then. but usually the messages i construct are more complex
anyhow, so i don't use message-boxes to construct the values but [pack].
e.g.

[pack 0 $0]
|
[obj 100 $1 fluffy $2(
|
[s pd-$0-patch]

in this case, the penalty of not being able to write $0 in message boxes
is minimal.

keep in mind that this example is somewhat simplistic as well. usually
the messages created contain a lot more arguments (>>4)
, making the penalty even smaller.



fgmadsr
IOhannes