Hallo David !
What I'm confused about is that usually in microcontroller programming, there is a symmetry between setting the data direction of a pin (i.e. input or output), and setting/clearing a bit on that pin. For instance, in AVR C, if I want to assert a HIGH voltage on pin D0, I would write:
DDRD = 0x01; // set data direction for pin 0, port D to output PORTD |= 0x01; // set value of pin 0, port D to HIGH
okay... (I think I still didn't really get what you want to say ...) For the arduino there is a function to define input/output of a pin and then to write/read from that pin ... So in PD this are "wrappers" for these funcions - you have to set input/output mode firt one time, then you can simply use digital in- or output ...
different - but since arduino/pduino is supposed to be good for physical computing students who know little about the nitty-gritty details of hardware/software integration, it should be as straightforward as possible.
it should be as straightforward as possible (I mean the help patch - the test patch is a little bit confusing ...)
LG Georg