[PD] class_sethelpsymbol (was: [folder] external?)

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Fri, 25 Jun 2010, Bryan Jurish wrote:

> I clearly and distinctly recall that you (Hans) mentioned to me off-list 
> in 2008 that use of class_sethelpsymbol() was deprecated for pd-extended 
> ("it is best not to use class_sethelpsymbol() at all" [for pd-extended]) 
> and recommended that I remove those calls from my code

That's the usual mantra. Some kind of preaching without much 
justification. Thou shalt not use class_sethelpsymbol, thou shalt not use 
aliases, because it's ugly and wrong. it's wrong because it's ugly, and 
it's ugly because it's wrong. It's wrong because if you used 
class_sethelpsymbol, it would be ugly. (see also : begging the 
question !). It sounds like a seminar about young sheep being guided 
towards JAVA (Jesus Gosling was born in com.sun.labs.Bethlehem at the 
beginning of our era...)

> Indeed.  The same holds (these days) for 'moocow'.  I still feel that
> this discussion is relevant, though.

I don't think it's Hans' business to impose a helpfile style through 
deprecation of class_sethelpsymbol. Library writers deserve more freedom 
than that... EVEN if they decide to misuse it, then Hans should not seek 
to ban sethelpsymbol for example, and instead should go against the 
content or the filename, such anything that Degoyon decides to be teaching 
us about giraffe(s).

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| Mathieu Bouchard, Montréal, Québec. téléphone: +1.514.383.3801