--- On Sun, 7/10/11, Mathieu Bouchard matju@artengine.ca wrote:
From: Mathieu Bouchard matju@artengine.ca Subject: Re: [PD] reorg of puredata.info/docs/developer To: "Hans-Christoph Steiner" hans@at.or.at Cc: "PD List" pd-list@iem.at Date: Sunday, July 10, 2011, 5:05 PM On Sun, 3 Jul 2011, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
One goal for me is to make it easy enough for all Pd
users to write their own GUI plugins. Honestly, I think we can make GUI plugins replace the idea of preferences.
Don't overestimate the users' capacity to (or will to) deal with Tcl syntax. Chances are that they will be editing such files for the first time in their lives and will need a Tcl tutorial to get going. Then they will only do the most basic things.
Most prefs are only simple data such as someflag=1 or bgcolor=#0055aa.
I really like the idea of the prefs being a pd patch which gets loaded as a hidden patch like pd-_float (but doesn't get destroyed if you happen to "vis" it then close it so that one can view it from a menubutton). It could start out as something as simple as some explanatory comments and the following:
[loadbang] | [canvas_colors 1 2 3 4 etc.( <- canvas_bg obj_inner obj_border wires etc. | [s pd]
Then you can open up development/design of the preferences patch to a larger audience (i.e., not just people who know or are willing to learn an additional language like tcl).
This would require designing a clear and consistent interface for sending preference messages to "pd", but I think it would be worth it. Something as simple as getting white text on a black background without leaving the pd message system would be a great benefit to users.
-jonathan
| Mathieu Bouchard ---- tél: +1.514.383.3801 ---- Villeray, Montréal, QC
-----Inline Attachment Follows-----
Pd-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list