[PD] [list] output

[Matteo Sisti Sette]

IOhannes zmölnig escribió:
> Matteo Sisti Sette wrote:
>> Jonathan Wilkes escribió:
>>> , I think it's best to say that it always outputs messages with
>>> the "list" selector, 
>> Except [list trim], of course
> 
> almost.
> 
> [bang(
> |
> [list append]
> |
> [list trim]
> |
> ??
> 

The answer is "bang".
Or "list", that is the same.

The question shouldn't be whether a message has or doesn't have the list 
identifier: the question should be what the message is.
"list foo" and "symbol foo" are the same message; whether they are 
represented in one or the other way is (or should be) a matter of 
internal representation, irrelevant to the user. "list foo" _is_ a 
symbol (and it _is_ a list). "symbol foo" _is_ a list (and it _is_ a 
symbol).
The same holds for "list" and "bang", which both represent the empty 
list, or the bang which is the very same thing.

So, [bang(->[list append] appends the empty list to the empty list, 
producing an empty list, or a bang, that is the same.
Then "list"->[list trim], or "bang"->[list trim] that is the same, tries 
to strip the list identifier from the empty list, obtaining an empty 
message, which again is equivalent to a bang (a completely empty message 
does not exist), so the output of your example is "bang", or "list", 
which is the same.
Indeed if you feed it to a [print] it will print "bang". Is it 'written' 
as "list" or as "bang"? Who cares? It won't ever do any difference in 
any patch, and if it does, it is because of some bug.

-- 
Matteo Sisti Sette
matteosistisette at gmail.com
http://www.matteosistisette.com