The problem occurs because Pd has several built-in message types, and the float message is one of them. 
Pd expects any message that has the "float" selector to have one argument, and that argument should be a
float-atom (e.g., "float 1").  So if you type "float foo" in a message box and click it, Pd complains about
"bad arguments" because (I think) when the message box tries to parse the message, it sees the "float"
selector and thus expects a number for the argument, but instead it gets the symbolic-atom "foo."
 
In your example patch, if you disconnect all the objects from the outlet of [textfile] and click
the [bng], you'll notice that you don't get an error.  I would take this to mean that [textfile] does its
job-- its just that once you try to do anything with the message "float toto 0 1 2" by connecting
[textfile]'s outlet to another object, Pd will catch the badly formed message and report an error.
 
(On the other hand, if your example text file had the line "float 3 0 1 2," the first argument ("3") would be
the right type of atom, so Pd would just silently truncate
everything after the first argument.  But you'd still get an error from the
right inlet of [select float] because, ironically, by making the first argument of [select] the word
"float" instead of a float-atom like "3," you are instantiating a [select] object that expects symbol
messages and not floats.)
 
As far as a solution, you could begin each line of your text file with the selector "list", or a word that
is not the selector of Pd's builtin messages.  If you're reading in arbitrary data and you can't control
whether each line starts with something that could be confused for a built-in Pd message type, I'm not sure
what the best solution is.
 
-Jonathan


From: Pedro Lopes <pedro.lopes@ist.utl.pt>
To: matohawk <matohawk@gmail.com>
Cc: pd-list <Pd-list@iem.at>
Sent: Tue, June 29, 2010 6:49:44 PM
Subject: Re: [PD] Problem with Textfile and line with float

humm.. I see what you mean now. It gives a error with the float argument when it arrives at the objects after the textfile. I'm trying to figure out the reason for that.

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:42 PM, Pedro Lopes <pedro.lopes@ist.utl.pt> wrote:
I did that, but what are you expecting your patch to do?
Should it send each object read from text file separately?

'Cause here (with the patch I explain in my previous reply) the textfile reads your file and outputs all the values to a [print list] so then its just a matter of manipulating that into what you want.

I used your file for the tests. I can try to look and guess what do you intend, but its probably less ambiguous if you explain the purpose. :)

Best of luck,
Pedro


On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 11:36 PM, matohawk <matohawk@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Pedro,
Sorry I think I'm not very with explanation.
I know how textfile works it's not my problem
Have a look of this patch and textfile, it's better to understand the problem:
http://www.th-th.fr/DOCS/Patch/bug-texfile.pd
http://www.th-th.fr/DOCS/Patch/text-float.txt

Download the twho files, open the patch and click on bang

Cheers,
Thomas

Pedro Lopes a écrit :
I'm not following the "concept" behind your code.

Notice that you can connect a message box "print" and send that command to textfile. And it reads your file to the pd shell correctly.

[read your-file.txt]
|   [print(  <-- this is a message
| /
|/
|  [bang] <-- hit this to read,.
| /
|/
[textfile]
|
|
[print list]

And it works. Take a look at the help file, it shows hot to use it. I hope I'm understanding your issue, if not, hopefully someone does :)

Best of luck,
Pedro
p.s: remember to use the "rewind" message to textfile, because otherwise it doesn't read the line again! Because it moves forward with the seek file pointer.

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 10:37 PM, thomas thiery <matohawk@gmail.com <mailto:matohawk@gmail.com>> wrote:

   Hi pd-list,

   test this patch, I saw a curious problem. I need to read line with
   "float" at the begining of a line and textfile can't do this.
   It's a pity

   --     Matohawk alias Th-Th
   www.th-th.fr <http://www.th-th.fr>

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Pedro Lopes
contacto: jazz@radiozero.pt <mailto:jazz@radiozero.pt>

website: http://web.ist.utl.pt/Pedro.Lopes


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contacto: jazz@radiozero.pt
website: http://web.ist.utl.pt/Pedro.Lopes