On Sat, 10 Nov 2007, IOhannes m zmoelnig wrote:
however, in the case of [multiplex] "messages" are acutally treated as "data", therefore the distinction blurs, but this is because [multiplex], like [route], is more a "system"-object that is to be used to _control_ the data-flow, rather than an ordinary object.
This is because it makes you think of control-flow statements in C, which are special, as you can't define any new (except some macro tricks), and functions cannot fulfill the same role.
Several languages allow you to define control-flow statements because they look like any other functions. there are anonymous sub-functions that act like the blocks of a control-flow statements. In some of those languages, all control-flow statements are functions.
In Pd, all control-flow statements are objects, and there is no need to draw a line between "system" and "non-system". There are more useful lines to draw, such as "behaves like [pack] followed by an object followed by [unpack]" or "behaves like [timer]", as a way to tell quickly what an object is supposed to be used like.
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