[PD] plans for Pd 0.48

[oliver]

hi,

since it's already up, i took the freedom to add a small "wish-list" of 
features i think would be great for PD-vanilla's next release. Almost 
all of these things can be done with externals, but i think they are 
somewhat elementary features and maybe it's not too hard to implement 
them in native PD.

If any of these points can be done natively already and i just haven't 
figured out how, please point me in the right direction:

Here's my list (i'm trying to be modest):

1.) [receive] should have a set option

right now i have to use [iem_receive] for this, but i really think that 
it should be PD native. [send], [send~] and [receive~] are settable, so 
why not [receive] as well ? i also figured, that adding a message inlet 
to the object wouldn't break compatibility as it has no inlet as of today.

2.) spaces in symbols/filenames etc. should be possible
probably with a [list] modifier, something like:

[list makesymbol]

or even

[list makesymbol _]

(where "_" would be a settable separator, space by default).

i even figured a way to do this with vanilla objects (see attached patch 
"tosymbol_example.pd"). but it seems awkward and unnecessarily 
complicated to do it like this, would be much nicer to have an option 
for this much needed feature in a more direct way.

right now, my external helpers are [mergefilename] or [l2s]

3.) [closebang]

would be very useful for automated state/preset saving etc.

atm i'm using iemguts' [closebang], but it only works in abstractions. 
good enough for my needs, but also not vanilla ...

4.) a position outlet for [readsf~], signal or message

would be great in conjunction with GEM, to sync a video to an audio file 
without having to use up RAM for this. the rawness of [readsf~] is ok, 
but since day 1 i was missing a play-position-info feature.

5.) while we're at it: a speed flag for [readsf~] ?

6.) a drag and drop option

IOhannes made a .tcl plugin that I'm using, that at least allows DND for 
opening PD files when dropped onto the PD window. would be great to have 
that natively, too.

But what I'm missing most is somthing like this:

drop a file (i.e. a soundfile) onto a window (or even better, a 
designated spot, like a canvas) and receive the file's full name either 
from a [netreceive] object with a fixed port number, or from a settable 
[receive] object.

maybe it can already be done, but my TCL knowledge is nil, probably 
somebody on this list can point me to an "easy" solution ?

7.) better or more verbose tutorials for:

TABSEND~ / TABRECEIVE~
GRAPH-ON-PARENT / NAMECANVAS

8.) some GUI stuff i am missing and the externals i am using so far:

knob                      ---> mknob (moonlib)
image toggle/display etc. ---> iem_image (iemgui)
popup menu                ---> menubutton (tof)

=======================================================================

thanks a lot for your attention !

all the best to you all,
looking forward to PD 0.48, whatever it will bring !

best

oliver


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