[PD] opinions on the issue of concurrent implementations (was: getting sample rate of file loaded into an array)

[Ed Kelly]

>>  We should use C language only when we need it, in the example of [waveinfo] vs [soundfile_info], both aren't the good way for me,
>> we just need the [binfile] external for reading the header, and all the other stuff can be done into a pd patch.
>> 
>
>we don't need [binfile]!
>
>Pd is proven to be turing complete, so it should be easy enough to write
>an operating system entirely in Pd (that is: a patch) that will allow
>you to read/write soundfiles in any desired format.
>
>mgdasr
>IOhannes

True, but looking outside of the scope of audio for a second...
A student of mine did a project based on microwave background radiation measurements taken from radio telescopes, in order to deal with data that was truly random in some way (I'm skipping a debate about the randomness or otherwise in cosmological terms, the big bang etc.)
He accessed binary files to generate points. Admittedly this was in Processing, but the ability to deal with any binary data and decode it on an ad-hoc basis was essential for this project to work.

The point I am trying to make is that Pd should be able to read and write any file, with interpretation of the data implemented on an ad-hoc basis. In this way, mrpeach/binfile is incredibly useful. Obviously non-audio files will mostly generate noise if played back as audio, but Pd provides so many other ways in which data can be sonified, visualized etc...

Ed