This is my first post but I've been lurking on the list for a while - and learnt lots - thanks for all the work on pd and the lively discussions.
When using $1, $2 etc in a message object the behaviour is odd: if a float is the first element of a list then it is used as $1 - all the examples I can find in the docs show lists of floats only. If a symbol is first it is ignored and the second symbol is used for $1.
I assume this is so the first symbol can be special eg: 'set' and to fit with the general pattern of arguments, lists etc. but it would be nice to add a couple of symbol list examples to the help file to illustrate this difference - maybe from the attached patch.
My problem is that I am making an subpatch to include in lots of my patches so I can stop pd rendering or quit from another machine if it gets overloaded while running GEM, and so I can easily run patches -nogui. I want to do it with standard pd so it is as portable as possible. The way I've set it up I want to send messages to various receive objects but I'm stuck trying to add 'list' to the head of a the text from netreceive without using external libraries - see my patch.
There is also a consistent crash: when pdsend has been connected, then the patch containing netreceive is closed and reopened, and then pdsend sends some more messages. This is on OSX 10.3.8, Pd version 0.38 TEST13, GEM 0.90 and on Pd version 0.37.0. The terminal reports 'Bus error'. I've included bits of the console reports in case they is any use.
When the pd side works smoothly I'll make a simple OSX wrapper for pdsend with buttons and a text box so it is very easy to use. Also a few sliders so I can share the patches that rely on running nogui and that I control with midi hardware. For now I can just type an extra word in the terminal each time I want to do a send, and wait till the patch is open before launching pdsend
Thanks,
Simon Wise