The standard/default install locations work everywhere without any effort and are persistent in all cases that I can think of, so that would be the least work to use.

I don't think there is any real time difference between loading pd using a global path versus setting the path with [declare -path]. [declare -path] is also persistent across Pd sessions and applies to abstractions in your project, IIRC. And having the relative path means your project doesn't break if you move it to a different folder.

Sharing patches doesn't just mean with random people on the internet. It also means one person using the same patch on different computers, with different Pd distros, on different OSes, etc.

.hc

On Tue, 2011-09-20 at 14:24 -0500, Charles Henry wrote:

I don't actually *like* those solutions for the scenario I just described.

I think the path dialog has a distinct purpose of its own that is not shared by those options. (These aren't always advantages--just differences) --It's persistent across sessions. --I can use my own organization of abstractions in some far flung corner of my user directory. --It's always the full path.

For some types of work, the path dialog really makes sense to me. I work on it sporadically, I crash Pd frequently, and when I start it up, having those settings saved in the config will save me some time.

[declare] and [import] are really for sharing patches with other people--but maybe I'm not sharing anything and I'm just cooking up some buggy externals. Then, I want to be able to work quickly--*not* correctly.

Chuck

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Hans-Christoph Steiner hans@at.or.at wrote:

...

For this situation, I think there is no need for custom paths, you can use the built-in default paths, which are the default in pd-vanilla, pd-extended, and pd-l2ork.

For the rjlib, merely drop the 'rj' folder into the standard default install location: http://puredata.info/docs/faq/how-do-i-install-externals-and-help-files

Then use the object by doing [rj/s_fm4] or whatever. Or you could you:

[import rj] [s_fm4]

or:

[declare -lib rj] [s_fm4]

The only use case for setting your own path that I know is like [declare -path lib/] where you set a folder within your project to load libs from. That is accomplished much better with [declare -path] than setting a global pref because it means the patch has the whole config included with it.

.hc

On Tue, 2011-09-20 at 13:30 -0500, Charles Henry wrote:

...

Sorry-I'm a bit confused as to the difference between libs and paths, at the moment.

Here's a situation where I like to have the path dialog: I download an archive of abstractions (like RJDJ), and I'd like to be able to put them anywhere, so if there's a couple different versions, I can just tell them apart from folders.

With the path dialog, I can just right away see what set of abstractions are on the path, change it, apply, and get to work.

How would I accomplish the same thing without it?

Chuck