[PD] How's Pd limited?

Dan Wilcox danomatika at gmail.com
Mon Feb 22 22:29:48 CET 2016


> 2016-02-22 17:25 GMT-03:00 Matt Barber <brbrofsvl at gmail.com <mailto:brbrofsvl at gmail.com>>:
> I've said this before, but I think there are very good reasons not to ever include segmented patch cords (although hideable patch cords would be even worse). These two features are responsible for some of the very worst patching habits in Max/MSP. Have you ever been called on to run someone's patch, and you need to tweak something for your specific audio setup or fix a bug or whatever, and when you open it you get something that looks like this (one of the first "max patch" results on google image search):
> 
> http://www.letatoubleu.com/OLcomposer_files/image001.jpg <http://www.letatoubleu.com/OLcomposer_files/image001.jpg>
> 
> 
> I agree, and I laugh when people say, this is hard to understand in Max, because of all the cords, I can't imagine how ugly it'd be in Pd.



The solution is the same in both environments: good use of encapsulation via subpatches & judicious use of send/recvs when necessary.

Example from robotcowboy:

* one of my first performance patches: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/25082084442/in/datetaken-public/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/25082084442/in/datetaken-public/>
* and the second version using subpatches & send/recvs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/24573539133/in/datetaken-public/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/24573539133/in/datetaken-public/>

This approach led to using GOP and modularizing things between separate patches & a main control patch: https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/25107115651/in/datetaken-public/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/danomatika/25107115651/in/datetaken-public/>

To segment or not to segment is moot, you can create both well designed as well as spaghetti patches in either environment just as you can create well-written or spaghetti code in any textual language. I agree that the environments are not at fault here.

--------
Dan Wilcox
@danomatika <https://twitter.com/danomatika>
danomatika.com <http://danomatika.com/>
robotcowboy.com <http://robotcowboy.com/>
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