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

[Hans-Christoph Steiner]

On Jul 10, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:

>
>
> --- 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

'pd-gui' already sends only Pd messages to 'pd', so that API is fully  
available in patches, and reasonably documented (see pd-msg).  Then  
there is [sys_gui] for sending Tcl to the GUI.  That's direct access  
to the current state of things.  Its a bit weird, but that's how it  
happens on the inside.  Really I suppose we should be making an API  
for 'pd-gui', and make 'pd' talk to 'pd-gui' using only Pd messages.   
That's a big project, but I'd like to see that happen.

.hc


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