[PD] reorg of puredata.info/docs/developer

[Jonathan Wilkes]

--- On Sun, 7/10/11, Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca> wrote:

> From: Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>
> Subject: Re: [PD] reorg of puredata.info/docs/developer
> To: "Hans-Christoph Steiner" <hans at at.or.at>
> Cc: "PD List" <pd-list at iem.at>
> Date: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 5:05 PM
> On Sun, 3 Jul 2011, Hans-Christoph
> Steiner wrote:
> 
> > One goal for me is to make it easy enough for all Pd
> users to write their own GUI plugins. Honestly, I think we
> can make GUI plugins replace the idea of preferences.
> 
> Don't overestimate the users' capacity to (or will to) deal
> with Tcl syntax. Chances are that they will be editing such
> files for the first time in their lives and will need a Tcl
> tutorial to get going. Then they will only do the most basic
> things.
> 
> Most prefs are only simple data such as someflag=1 or
> bgcolor=#0055aa.

I really like the idea of the prefs being a pd patch which gets loaded as a hidden patch like pd-_float (but doesn't get destroyed if you happen to "vis" it then close it so that one can view it from a menubutton).  It could start out as something as simple as some explanatory comments and the following:

[loadbang]
|
[canvas_colors 1 2 3 4 etc.( <- canvas_bg obj_inner obj_border wires etc.
|
[s pd]

Then you can open up development/design of the preferences patch to a larger audience (i.e., not just people who know or are willing to learn an additional language like tcl).

This would require designing a clear and consistent interface for sending preference messages to "pd", but I think it would be worth it.  Something as simple as getting white text on a black background without leaving the pd message system would be a great benefit to users.

-jonathan

> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> | Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ----
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