I think its good to get to a point where we don't have to worry much
about backwards compatibility. IMHO, the easiest way to do that is
embed library and other settings in each patch rather than having
libraries loaded by default. The pow~ issue highlights that.
You can also already use naming schemes like cyclone/prepend, iemlib/
prepend, etc.
.hc
On Nov 12, 2009, at 9:55 AM, Ivica Ico Bukvic wrote:
FWIW, I recently listened to a really entertaining presentation of a
computer systems security expert and one thing he pointed out that
IMHO is
currently really bogging Pd development is legacy support.
If PD is currently undergoing a complete rewrite of the GUI this may
be a
good opportunity to also revisit external naming scheme. I
understand that
there has been a lot of work done by Hans and others to make pd-
extended
easier to use, yet many problems remain. What if we simply all agree
to do
fundamental changes to how externals work with the understanding
that we are
effectively breaking backwards compatibility (which is not that big
of a
deal, simply use your favorite editor and search/replace offending
objects
and you are done) and make the whole thing a lot simpler?
For instance, each external object could be simply retitled to
cyclone_pow~
or iemlib_pow~ or whatever. We've been effectively doing this with
DISIS
objects and have had no problems whatsoever with trivial issues such
as what
folder they need to go into and where is their help file supposed to
go
(e.g. pd-extended still fails to load proper help files and has a
myriad of
other problems).
Of course, this is not as easy as it sounds:
What objects are considered a part of the vanilla pd-extended? I would
simply say iem, gem, and pd are vanilla are it and everything else is
renamed.
What about the trouble of remembering what object does what? Well,
if 0.43
will have a nice right-click menu with all objects listed in there
and if we
do good cross-referencing documentation, this should not be as
difficult
and/or confusing (certainly no more than typing cyclone/pow~ or
whatever).
etc. Basically, I think this would in the long run be a lot easier
as we
would simply end-up having only one folder for all help files and
only one
folder for all externals. No sub-folders, no complex paths, lost/
mixed-up
help files, no unusual workarounds within Pd.
Just my 1-cents worth...
Ico
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