--- On Fri, 2/5/10, Matteo Sisti Sette <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Matteo Sisti Sette <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PD] [list] output > To: "PD list" <[email protected]> > Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 7:56 PM > Hi, > > Maybe I'm late, but I try to answer to the questions that > have been raised about the list stuff, for two reasons: > first, in case this is helpful to those who asked, and > second, so that those who know more than I do can correct me > where I'm wrong or show me if the whole thig can be stated > in a different way. > > This is my understanding of how lists and messages > interact. > > 1) The "float" or "list" identifiers are implicit when a > message starts with a number atom, so > > [1( is equivalent to [float 1( > > [1 2 3( is equivalent to [list 1 2 3( > > Another way of stating this (perhaps more correct??) may be > that a message cannot start with a number atom, i.e. it > always starts with a symbol atom which is its identifier, so > if you type "1" into a message box (or a text file read by > [textfile]) the message actually generated has an implicit > (or automatically added) "float" or "list" identifier - > Which of the two interpretations is more correct is, from my > point of view, just an implementation matter. > > 2) One-element lists are equivalent to symbols or numbers, > depending on the type of their only element, so > > [list foo( is equivalent to [symbol foo( > > [list 1( is equivalent to [float 1( - which is > equivalent to [1( > > 3) Equivalent means that ALL objects in Pd will treat such > messages exactly the same way. The fact that some signal > objects such as > > [*~] > > will not accept "list <somenumber>" complaining they > have no method for list, is in my opinion a BUG. Somebody > just forgot to do the needed conversions at the inlets. I > remember someone agreed with me on this. > > Whether the conversions are made at outlets or inlets of > objects is another implementation matter that I think should > be transparent/irrelevant to the user. It is a bug. I'm concerned mainly with documentation, and for an object like [list], I think it's best to say that it always outputs messages with the "list" selector, but also say how the message "list" and one-element lists are handled by objects in Pd. (The paragraph in [pd list trim] in list-help.pd already goes in this direction, it just needs to be expanded.) -Jonathan _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
