I think what it boils down to is that the paths in st_staticpath (Pd) are used recursively and the paths in sys_searchpath (user) are not. This means if we have an deken externals download dir, we still have to add *each* external's subdirectories to sys_searchpath since it's not recursive, whereas throwing stuff in ../extra "just works". This would be why adding something like ~/Documents/Pd to st_staticpath is so attractive because it negates needing to add each lib to the user search paths.

Maybe we need an option to add recursive search paths?

On Jul 30, 2017, at 10:00 PM, pd-list-request@lists.iem.at wrote:

From: Miller Puckette <msp@ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: [PD] New users and external path struggles
Date: July 30, 2017 at 8:56:30 PM GMT+2
To: Alexandre Torres Porres <porres@gmail.com>
Cc: pd-list <pd-list@iem.at>


Except perhaps in this thread I can try to explain... I always meant
"standard path" to refer to "stuff distributed with Pd", and "Path" to
be adjustible to point to libraries that are not part of the Pd distribution.
I think part of the confusion comes from different possible interpretations
of "standard path" (which, as I now realize, is badly named).  But I think
the way forward is to somehow get the "path" mechanism to do what people are
asking for.

cheers
Miller

--------
Dan Wilcox
@danomatika
danomatika.com
robotcowboy.com