I think it's just as important to find an elegant wording to describe just what "data structures" and "pointers" are for people with little experience, who might be deciding what programming environment to learn. I remember being intrigued and yet really intimidated by the explanation in the manual. I usually tell people Pd lets you make lists of arbitrary items, each of which has certain parameters that you decide, and Pd does whatever you tell it to do with each item according to those parameters. I make it too abstract for most people.
On 4/1/06, Hans-Christoph Steiner hans@eds.org wrote:
On Apr 1, 2006, at 2:45 AM, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo, david golightly hat gesagt: // david golightly wrote:
Hey, that's a good point. Anyone got any dazzling examples of data structures? (Frank B? Anyone?)
I'd suggest to use: http://at.or.at/hans/solitude
I think that's a good example of how Miller intended the graphical data structures to be used. But personally, I think Frank' examples really highlight something much bigger and more important: that the data structures should be seen as a flexible what of making GUIs, displaying/storing data, etc. That's the direction we should push, an open-ended system, rather than just something to write musical scores. Plus Frank has cranked out so many great interactive patches.
I guess the Solitude image looks nice when you say "this makes music".
.hc
Man has survived hitherto because he was too ignorant to know how to realize his wishes. Now that he can realize them, he must either change them, or perish. -William Carlos Williams
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