> I just can't see how there could be any problem, or, in other words, I
> can't see how $0 becoming "0" in messages is a desired feature or if anyone
> could rely on this behaviour.

"0" certainly isn't a good behaviour.

What would be the good behaviour, in this case?

>
> But, if there's any concern or resistance to this, no problem, my
> alternative would be to create an external that would do that. but then I'd
> like to know here first where should I aim my efforts, if to a Pull Request
> to Vanilla or to an external design.
>

like mostly, i'm opposing.
this has been discussed about 15 years ago, and my arguments still stand
(mainly: consistency with dollar-parsing throughout Pd)

Yes, but there is no consistency either now. So the question would be: is the current inconsistency a productive one (do people benefit from having a 0 there), or would people benefit more from having an inconsistency that provides them with a new useful feature?

For me, I can't count how many times I had to add a [$0], or a pack or some extra workaround before a message so that I could send messages to my variables (I hardly use variables without a $0).

Joao