wow, this mail contains a lot of useful info, and a lot of it i didn't know before. many thanks.
roman
On Tue, 2006-08-22 at 02:02 +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:
Hallo, Roman Haefeli hat gesagt: // Roman Haefeli wrote:
On Mon, 2006-08-21 at 15:59 +0200, Frank Barknecht wrote:
A solution could be directory namespaces.
this is only a solution for abs, but not for externals, yet. and the fact that pd-extended uses dir-namespaces doesn't make things easier, since it breaks 'interchangeability' of patches between pd-extended and pd.
Well, the interchangeability indeed is a problem, but not that much, if one decides to actually only use dir-namespaces. Because of the problems with finding help-files I'm a bit reluctant to use them already, but I plan to do so in the near future.
Btw: Directory namespaces also work for externals, just like they do for abstractions. There is no difference except when dealing with real libraries that bundle multiple externals, like Gem.
This would work for exmaple if you have a collection of patches in a directory "netpd" and if you will always use them with the directory prefix "netpd/". So for example your "netpd" directory is in "mystuff", you have "mystuff/netpd/run.pd" and "mystuff/netpd/run-help.pd" inside which calls and explains [netpd/run]. Then you add this to .pdrc/pdsettings:
-path mystuff -helppath mystuff
i just found out, that when the helppatches are located in the same dir as the abs, specifying only the -path works for helpfiles, too. this makes your way - putting the helpfiles together with the abs - even more usefull.
Yes, this is the standard way. Pd looks for help files basically in two places: Next to the abstraction or external and then in the directories specified in the help-path. doc/5.reference is automatically included in the help-path. The name of the help-file search is "help-NAME.pd", "NAME-help.pd", "NAME.pd" or whatever the author of a binary object specified in the source code (e.g. the help for [>] is specified as "otherbinops-help.pd")
Now if "netpd/run" from above is something with a directory, like "netpd/run", then Pd will search for "help-netpd/run.pd", "netpd/run-help.pd" or "netpd/run.pd". In this case, only the file "netpd/run-help.pd" makes sense to have.
well, since i talked only with you, frank, may i ask you, how you organize your stuff, just as an example? do you leave the helpfiles, where the install-script has put them? or do you place them altogether somewhere?
I leave them where "make install" puts them. If "make install" doesn't install the help files (for example "expr-help.pd" isn't or wasn't installed by "make install") I just put the help in doc/5.reference.
My own abstractions have their help-files right next to the original abstraction, using the NAME-help.pd pattern. I'm still not sure how to properly deal with directory prefixes later.
Ciao
Telefonate ohne weitere Kosten vom PC zum PC: http://messenger.yahoo.de