[PD] (breaking symbols) was Re: find a list of numbers in a text file

Jonathan Wilkes jancsika at yahoo.com
Sun Sep 4 04:47:46 CEST 2011


----- Original Message -----

> From: Mathieu Bouchard <matju at artengine.ca>
> To: Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika at yahoo.com>
> Cc: Chris McCormick <chris at mccormick.cx>; Miller Puckette <msp at ucsd.edu>; "pd-list at iem.at" <pd-list at iem.at>
> Sent: Saturday, September 3, 2011 1:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [PD] (breaking symbols) was Re: find a list of numbers in a text file
> 
> On Wed, 31 Aug 2011, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> 
>>  Keep in mind that [list implode] must be smart enough to output the float
>>  atom "12" given the input "49 50".  If it gives you 
> "symbol 12" then your
>>  back to the [makefilename] madness from my original vanilla solution.
> 
> It's not that simple.

It needs to be that simple for the general case because Pd Vanilla has no (sensible) mechanism to convert 
a symbol atom into a float.

If symbol atoms which look like numbers to the naked eye are going to start flying around more freely in Pd 
then the docs need to explain how atoms are a kind of weird file cabinet where the label on the cabinet tells 
you which file-folder inside actually holds the data.  So if you send the symbol-atom "15" to [max], the file clerk will 
complain because it's looking for a number but the label on the cabinet says "A_SYMBOL".  (Additionally, if you tell 
the clerk to ignore the label and just pull out a number, the clerk will look in "A_FLOAT" and give you a "0", because 
the "15" is in the "A_SYMBOL" file-folder.)

Hm... is there a way you can tell the clerk to be a real go-getter when looking for a float atom inside a 
cabined labeled "A_SYMBOL" by just going ahead and seeing if the data in the "A_SYMBOL" file-folder looks like a 
number, and if so convert it to a float and send it on its way?

Also, I'm assuming [list implode] would accept and process a list at the left inlet, unlike [s2l] (which passes the 
1st element to the right inlet).

> People might not want always a cast to float, because 
> then, it might destroy part of the information in the symbol.
> 
> see :
> http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-list/2006-09/042419.html
> 
> that's how [gf/s2l] is different : it outputs only symbols. I think I could 
> make it an option, but I wouldn't know how to call it. E.g. :
> 
>   [gf/s2l /, docast]
>   [gf/s2l /, convert]
>   [gf/s2l /, atof]
> 
> where the name after the comma is an attribute method taking one optional float 
> arg defaulting to 1, just like all other flags in GF, defined like this :
> 
>   \attr bool docast;
> 
>   void cast_if_wanted (t_atom *foo) {if (docast) ........;}
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________
> | Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
>



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