hello everyone
this problem is very old, but never solved. that is why i thought, it would be ok to post it again.
When opening patches by sending messages to pd, the path is relative to pd's startup-location. when loading other files (text-, audio-, data-files etc) the path is set relative to the location of the patch. since the patch doesn't know, where pd was started, you actually cannot use relative pathes when opening patches by messages without: a) using an external ([getdir]) b) using a separate textfile, that stores the the relative path from the patch to pd's start-location. but still, this configuration file needs to be adapted when used on another system. c) do it manually by using [openpanel]
personally i don't like that behaviour and i don't see any reason, why relative to startup location could be preferred.
in any case i can think of, this behaviour just turns things unusuable. it would be nice to have the ability to distribute patches, that open other patches by messages, which work without any additional user interaction on any system (like it is possible with other files than patches).
because of above reasons, installing netpd needs the user to set a path in a configuration file.
because of above reasons, i can't find a solution for implementing a singleton pattern in pd.
right now i see two approaches to overcome this problem:
a) integrating [getdir] in pd-vanilla.
b) an additional argument for the [open(-message to choose 'relativity' between start-up or patch. i don't know the internals of pd, so i am not sure, if this is possibe at all.
don't know, if this is related: http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-list/2002-12/008989.html
or this: http://lists.puredata.info/pipermail/pd-list/2004-07/021392.html
roman
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