On Jul 10, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
--- On Sun, 7/10/11, Mathieu Bouchard <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Mathieu Bouchard <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [PD] reorg of puredata.info/docs/developer
To: "Hans-Christoph Steiner" <[email protected]>
Cc: "PD List" <[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 5:05 PM
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011, Hans-Christoph
Steiner wrote:
One goal for me is to make it easy enough for all Pd
users to write their own GUI plugins. Honestly, I think we
can make GUI plugins replace the idea of preferences.
Don't overestimate the users' capacity to (or will to) deal
with Tcl syntax. Chances are that they will be editing such
files for the first time in their lives and will need a Tcl
tutorial to get going. Then they will only do the most basic
things.
Most prefs are only simple data such as someflag=1 or
bgcolor=#0055aa.
I really like the idea of the prefs being a pd patch which gets
loaded as a hidden patch like pd-_float (but doesn't get destroyed
if you happen to "vis" it then close it so that one can view it from
a menubutton). It could start out as something as simple as some
explanatory comments and the following:
[loadbang]
|
[canvas_colors 1 2 3 4 etc.( <- canvas_bg obj_inner obj_border wires
etc.
|
[s pd]
Then you can open up development/design of the preferences patch to
a larger audience (i.e., not just people who know or are willing to
learn an additional language like tcl).
This would require designing a clear and consistent interface for
sending preference messages to "pd", but I think it would be worth
it. Something as simple as getting white text on a black background
without leaving the pd message system would be a great benefit to
users.
-jonathan
'pd-gui' already sends only Pd messages to 'pd', so that API is fully
available in patches, and reasonably documented (see pd-msg). Then
there is [sys_gui] for sending Tcl to the GUI. That's direct access
to the current state of things. Its a bit weird, but that's how it
happens on the inside. Really I suppose we should be making an API
for 'pd-gui', and make 'pd' talk to 'pd-gui' using only Pd messages.
That's a big project, but I'd like to see that happen.
.hc
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using ReBirth is like trying to play an 808 with a long stick. -
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