[PD] New deken feature, create system user folder (was how-do-i-install-externals-and-help-files page (was Re: Linux Global folder for externals)

Alexandre Torres Porres porres at gmail.com
Sat Mar 4 17:09:04 CET 2017


2017-03-04 13:00 GMT-03:00 Alexandre Torres Porres <porres at gmail.com>:

> the whole discussion here seemed to be the need to create that folder
> automatically, to make things easier for the user.
>

I dont know if it's clear what a complex user experience it is to manage
externals in Pd right now. Seems that the whole idea with deken and all was
to make it painless, but we're not there yet.

Why creating such folders (like the user folder) would be better for the
user? Cause now it's just hard because you need to create the folder
yourself, and that requires, first of all, prior knowledge on how pd works
internally, which might be fine for developers, but not to users... second,
the ~/Library isn't  normally viewable in the finder on a Mac, so you also
gotta have knowledge that it this folder is hidden, where it is hidden, and
how to hack the system so you can see it...

Yes, this is for the Mac, but other systems have other peculiarities, which
just unfolds and adds complexity. But they do have a similar logic/idea,
that the user doesn't or shouldn't have to touch some folders, since they
can be dummies who may screw up and compromise the system. Therefore, is it
the *Software* that creates folders in such a place... but not Pd... and
the decision to not do it was consciously made, but I still don't know why.

I have asked a few times now, I still have no answer to why there's a good
reasoning not to do it when Pd is installed on your machine... I looked for
previous discussion in the list, I couldn't find, any possibility anybody
would join in and answer me please?

Anyway, since Pd does not create it, for some reason, we're down to giving
that task to the deken plugin, but it's not quite there yet. Nonetheless, I
still think the best solution is that Pd installs the system folders
automatically when it is installed (not only the user-specific in
*~/Library*, but also the global in */Library*).

Other features that would make things easier for the user is that if both
deken and the "Preferences => Path" tab had easy access to the folders Pd
automatically searches for externals (global, user and application). As it
is, it's simply impossible to navigate to the user-specific folder and also
to the application folder. On the other hand, I can actually navigate to
the system folder (/Library) just fine in Mac Os.

So, as it is, the most convenient place for mac users to install externals
is the global folder, so they can easily navigate there in the Path... or
in the Finder to manually drop or delete folders. That is, if only it had
been created there...

I hope I have made it clear how complicated and still somewhat painful
managing externals in Pd still is, and how there's much room por
improvement! It was only when I sat down and wrote a 13 page tutorial on
how to manage externals that I realized how hard it is, cause I didn't even
addressed all of these issues.

cheers
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