[PD] a multislider GUI as abstraction

[Raphaël Ilias]

Hello list,

I dare to share this abstraction named [ph_msl] because, I find it quite
handy even though made of many mouse/dynamic-patching tricks that many pd
users may find very inelegant and heavy.

However, this - if you manage to make it fully work* - is an attempt to
have this multi-slider GUI that I miss so much...
So it's a multi-slider GUI which visual & interface properties can be saved
with parent patch and modified in a windows when right-clicking >
Properties (like other vanilla guis).
...and other features that I wanted : shift-clicking for smaller step,
relative/jump mode like [hsl] or [vsl], histogram style bars...

I often feel that pd lacks a good GUI that can be modified as an
abstraction, whose graphic properties can be changed, but also mouse
interaction can be redesigned, etc...
I think that while you can easily "abstract" a DSP/audio or data processing
(like the "list-abs" set), the process of creating a good GUI is a very
"manual" process (like right-click properties every element, etc) and is
limited to few GUI objects that are strong but have their limits inside the
"not-puredata-code" (in C or tcl/tk) that make them black boxes. So that is
an attempt to answer these issues...

I love pd, but I miss some GUIs, like a good break-points curve editing (i
am aware about [envgen] but it's buggy inside graph-on-parent), for
envelopes or dynamic compressor ...
Maybe the ability to develop GUIs in "pd language itself" would make them
more customizable for the users, without having to learn C (at least, for
me, I don't want to learn C).

Maybe hackish-abstraction-GUI are too messy and not good in performance...
maybe it would still be easier and more efficient to have "compiled" GUI...
I don't know but wanted to share my experiments, and see if some have
answers or ideas...

Besides the debate I wish to have about GUI and pd, I hope you'll enjoy
this [ph_msl] or have any remarks about it... It's packed in a zip file,
and you should open "ph_msl-help.pd" first.

* this abstraction was made at first with pd-Extended, but I tried to make
it compatible with the vanilla+deken setup I use now and the standard
external call as [library/object].
It needs the following external libraries : cyclone, hcs, iemlib, iemgui,
iemguts, list-abs, moonlib, purepd, zexy

best regards,

Raphaël
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