[PD] [PD-announce] pd 0.43-3 released

[João Pais]

> the user doesn'tget expressivity through data structures that would
> be comparable to just coding a c external, but they do get a
> (somewhat) comparable level of complexity.

yes, the worse is that the enigmatic (gpointer) don't mean anything for  
someone that can't read the C code, like me. changing that format for a  
symbolic "link" - like "structname-scalarnr" or similar, user-defined -  
would make much more sense for users. And also, hopefully, give scalars a  
faster way of being accessed (the traversing issue).


> Here's how to make them better:
> 1) Make a public interface out of the trick you're already using to
> load pd-_float_array and pd-_float.  Users should be able to make
> a ds library and load that library with the same ease that they load
> external libraries using [declare], [import], etc. (This will also solve
> the problem of trying to use a data structure inside an abstraction,
> where on the one hand the user must use [struct $0-foo], but then
> that destroys any chance to save and reload state with impugnity.)

ah, that one I forgot. for my simple abstractions like [bezier] or  
[swatch], the scalars of $0-templates are created on loadbang. but that's  
not very handy (or possible?) when loading a score with thousands of  
scalars.


> 2) Allow scalar creation by typing the name in an object box.  If I

A good complement to that would be scalar manipulation as well. like  
sending a message [select scalar-1 scalar-278( to select a range of  
scalars, and then move them (without going to the x/y fields of each one),  
duplicating, erasing, copy/pasting, ...


> (Experimental) 3) Add a "canvas" or "glist" field to [struct] as I  
> suggested in an earlier
> email.  I don't think João would need to search through a linked list  
> just to find a
> value if he could have a canvas with the necessary objects in it that is
> associated with that scalar and its field values.

I didn't understood that, but it sounds very important, my name is in that  
paragraph.

João