[ pure-data-Bugs-2026128 ] [list trim] outputs mystery type after conversion - Pd-dev

24 Jul 2008


      Bugs item #2026128, was opened at 2008-07-23 17:02
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by eighthave
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Category: puredata
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Hans-Christoph Steiner (eighthave)
Assigned to: Miller Puckette (millerpuckette)
Summary: [list trim] outputs mystery type after conversion
Initial Comment:
If you start with a symbolic atom in a symbol message, then run it thru a [list trim], you end up with a mystery type that is just a numeric atom, but does not work as a float message.
see attached patch for an example
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Comment By: Hans-Christoph Steiner (eighthave)
Date: 2008-07-24 00:40
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This is a question of how should Pd behave, now how it currently does.  If
there is supposed to be such a thing as "a symbolic atom that is a number,
but without a symbol selector", then it should be fully supported and
documented.  But this is the current definition of a symbolic atom (Pd
manual 2.1.2):
"Anything that is not a valid number is considered a symbol."
By taking the converse of the above rule, "1234" looks like a valid number
so it should be a float.  That inconsistency is the bug that I am trying to
highlight.
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Comment By: Frank Barknecht (fbar)
Date: 2008-07-23 19:38
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I hope even with all my spelling mistakes you can understand my previous
post  ...  Is it possible to edit posts?
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Comment By: Frank Barknecht (fbar)
Date: 2008-07-23 19:36
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Yeah, these "mystery types" can be confusing, but in reality they are just
ordinary symbols with a pure numeric data part. Note that these numeric
symbols are not numbers or floats!
[list trim] removes the selector, so after that you have a "1234" string
without selector (or with "symbol 1234" as selector, but minus the "symbol"
part. You can covert this back to a Pd-symbol with a [symbol] or [list]
object. However as you cannot represent numberic symbols in a saved Pd
patch, you cannot use [select 1234] or [route 1234] to select or route
them.
However you can use [select -DUMMY-] and prime that with a numeric symbol
created with [makefilename %d] construct to its left inlet to select
numeric symbols. The same "trick" is used to select backslashes or other 
for example split a symbol at any other "unusual" symbol using
[list2symbol]. Try 92---[makefilename %c] to split at backslashes, for
example.
Anyway, there's nothing mysterious about numeric symbols, they are just
unusual in Pd. I think, we had similar confusions before in the bug
tracker, but I didn't check.
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