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

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Sat, 3 Sep 2011, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:

> 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.

Then it needs a 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.

That's called a union or a variant record type or an «any» type or a 
sum-type or whatever else.

If it looks weird and/or difficult, it's because it's not taught in a way 
that makes it understood as normal.

> 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).

I don't understand. Wouldn't [list implode] correspond to [l2s], whereas 
[list explode] would correspond to [s2l].

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