I made an attempt to build a search engine awhile back:
http://puredata.info/Members/jancsika/searchandbrowseplugin/view?searchterm=search%20plugin
This plugin is designed to be exactly what you are looking for-- I know because I had the same problems
when starting out with Pd and read similarly dreadful responses.
It is a GUI plugin. Use the links Iohannes provided to install it.
The plugin is designed to work with Pd-extended. (I also back-ported a version to use with Pd-l2ork but it
isn't included there yet.) It searches for help patches in all the default sys and lib
paths, plus any extra ones you specify in the path dialog (though this dialog may have been removed
in a recent version-- I don't remember).
Full text search works with all help patches. Searching by using the keywords listed toward the bottom of
the main search page will only return results for help patches that have keyword metadata (i.e., help
patches which I've revised to be searchable, which is maybe half of everything in Pd-extended).
For me full text searches tend to take a few seconds on my GNU/Linux machine and much longer on
OSX. (In Windows the first search takes forever but subsequent searches are somewhat faster.) I think
improving the speed would require building an index and would be a lot more work.
You won't get results for classes that don't have help patches, but then if the developer was too lazy to
document what the object does then I'm sure they used all the time saved to make the object work flawlessly... :)
Speaking of dev laziness-- there are many objects which have nearly empty help patches. If you run into
this, be sure to try clicking the little "info" icon next to the search result. It will bring up the README.txt file
for the corresponding library which often will give you a few more clues about the object in question. You can
also click the folder icon to open an external file browser to see the full contents of an external library (like the
binaries and and other non-doc files).
Let me know if there are any keyword categories that would be useful to add to the main search page.
Best,
Jonathan
>________________________________
> From: Фывапр Олджэвич <tofuckof@inbox.ru>
>To: João Pais <jmmmpais@googlemail.com>
>Cc: pd-list@iem.at; IOhannes m zmoelnig <zmoelnig@iem.at>
>Sent: Monday, September 3, 2012 6:16 AM
>Subject: Re: [PD] finding objects ?
>
>
>Thankyou for your list !
>
>
>\\ I know, although it's never actual.
>
>- Why ? I mean that if I don't know all the objects by memory, and I need some function to be done - I need easy search by categorys and so on - with descriptions... it is much easear, than asking List every time... and also helps to learn other objects faster.
>
>\\Also the object completion plugin helps to find
>objects (pd-ext 0.43).
>
>- what is it ? is it complemented with Extended 0.43 ? or should it be loaded apart ? and does it work for Windows ?
>
>
>cheers !
>
>serg
>
>
>
>Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:24:09 +0200 от João Pais <jmmmpais@googlemail.com>:
>
>
>>
>>> On 2012-09-03 00:19, ?????? ???????? wrote:
>>>> Dear list !
>>>>
>>>> Where can I find the most complete PD-objects and commands
>>>> reference, please ?
>>>
>>> right click on the object.
>>> select help.
>>
>>for pd-vanilla, right-click anywhere in an empty space, and select help.
>>for pd-extended, there isn't one. my list (attached) is the most complete
>>I know, although it's never actual. the pd-floss website also has a list,
>>but only with part of the objects in this document.
>>
>>
>>>> And why it is not on the main site - puredata.info ?
>>>>
>>>
>>> because with help-patches that yre on your computer you do not have to
>>> be online and you can copy&paste interesting stuff.
>>
>>or rather more because development of pd-extended externals is a bit
>>chaotic, some developers don't do proper documentation, there isn't a
>>system to control the quality (or existence) of documentation, etc...
>>
>>Jonathan Wilkes has done lots of work with pddp to update the
>>documentation. Pd-Ext 0.43 has much more ressources, including better help
>>patches for pd-vanilla. Also the object completion plugin helps to find
>>objects (pd-ext 0.43).
>>
>>
>>João
>>
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>>
>
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