On 06/14/2013 01:03 AM, michael noble wrote:
On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 1:45 AM, Jonathan Wilkes <jancsika@yahoo.com mailto:jancsika@yahoo.com> wrote:
They improve readability in situations where a straightforward, structured patch ends up with a line crossing over and obscuring text.I'll go out on a limb as someone who rarely posts here. I've been working on a single complex patch, with many abstractions and sub-patches, for a long time now and one of the greatest pleasures of patching in PD for me is taking the time to avoid visual clutter within the constraints of working without right-angles or bezier curves.
There are basically three types of lines that look any good in PD to me - the horizontal cord, the vertical cord, and one particular diagonal in which the pixels just happen to align in a regular pattern. I would go so far as to say that working with only those three and sufficient white space one can avoid obscuring text in all situations. It takes longer because you have to think about where you place objects as well as what objects you are using, but I personally find I make better patching decisions based solely on the fact that I am forced to think longer about the patching process.
So long story short, I don't agree that right-angles or beziers are a requirement for clear, structured and readable patches. They may be helpful time-saving tools, but using them would come at a cost for me.
While I agree with you that in most cases segmented patch cords are unnecessary, if you never have a need for them I presume you must be then using sends and receives for any situation where there is a feedback loop like:
[object] x [object]
Segmented patch cords have their advantages, but like any tool, they can be also misused to produce even less readable patches. Time permitting and provided there is enough interest I may look into adding segmented patch cords into pd-l2ork.
Cheers!