> Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 08:12:15 +0200
> From: fbar@footils.org
> To: hans@at.or.at
> CC: pd-list@iem.at
> Subject: Re: [PD] (breaking symbols) was Re: find a list of numbers in a text file
> 
> Hi,
> 
> On Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 02:34:30PM -0400, Hans-Christoph Steiner wrote:
> > 
> > Then having the patch rely on the "error: float: no method for
> > 'symbol'" error that is normally generated in that case. 
> 
> Well, it prints an error because there *is* an error in the patch. The
> author should never have converted a float to a symbol and expect to
> still do float calculations with it. 
> 

Yes, I think it ought to be up to the external to implement its own symbol-to-float converter since there is no universally valid way of doing it.
The same pattern will have different meanings in different context and Pd can't be expected to know what is expected in a specific case.

Martin