hi all,
the max-like reference patches will always remain the main source of information and the best self-documenting feature. But keeping them up-to-date is a challenge, especially for someone who simply wants to share externals with others. There will always be missing, unfinished or obsolete references.
There is even greater problem with `0.INTRO.txt' reference, which is now the only way to list (nearly) all of the builtin classes. How many users know of an obscure midiclkin builtin? How about listing all loaded externals? Or producing an up-to-date list of all the messages one can send to pd or to a canvas -- or to any other object -- without greping the sources?
A simple mechanism used for listing all messages of a class, would not require introducing any fundamental changes to the program, and would provide a nice self-documenting feature. One may think of many ways to extend such a mechanism, but for the time being the very basics would need to be choosen from among at least three options:
- Reserve a selector (like: help, info or messagelist), define
a default method for this selector, and add this method during creation of any class (excluding messresponder and designing a special version of the method for objectmaker). This option is very easy -- I have managed to make a working prototype -- but has many flaws.
- Create a special class (
help' orinfo') and for any new class
add a method to this info-class with a selector named after the new class. Sending 'info' to an info-object would list all the known classes. This option could be tricky.
- Add several self-documenting messages to pdclass, possibly
assigning some gui items to them.
Krzysztof
Btw. do you know what is advertised as ``advanced, self-documenting, customizable, extensible and real-time''? Hint: there are many among us on pd-list, that use it everyday. Another hint: no, it is not PureData :-)