While we're at it, I'd like to mention the ceammc library, that can be installed in Vanilla (or you can use it as part of the Pd-Ceammc fork) and carries extra data types. For reference, see https://periodicos.unespar.edu.br/vortex/article/view/6783/4805

They have a data type for nested lists (with the same syntax as Lisp using parenthesis) and dictionaries (whose syntax is a little bit python-like, using brackets and the ability to load/save JSON files). 

There are yet other data types and I think that adding that many more is kinda overkill (like a data type just for envelopes), but anyway, it's interesting and I'm getting inspired to add both (nested lists and dicts) into ELSE, I just don't really think I'd need to create a new data type into Pd for this and add complexity to Pd's syntax. I guess that maybe I can only deal with special syntax for nesting lists and dictionaries...

And now that we're also talking about adding these to Vanilla, I wonder and would like to know if the idea is to expand the data types and complexity of the syntax, or if it's also just a matter of syntax.

Cheers

Em ter., 10 de fev. de 2026 às 11:13, Christof Ressi <info@christofressi.com> escreveu:
Nested lists would be awesome!

There has already been a discussion on GitHub:
https://github.com/pure-data/pure-data/issues/505.

I've tried to argue that we shouldn't suddenly reclaim existing valid
characters. Instead we could extend the semantics of $ to allow for more
control sequences.

In that sense, I have suggested to use ${ and $} instead of plain { and
} as nested list delimiters.

Similarly, we could finally support $@ as a placeholder for all
arguments or even introduce argument slices like $[1:4].

Christof

On 2/10/2026 8:40 AM, IOhannes m zmölnig via Pd-list wrote:
> Am 10. Februar 2026 00:40:27 MEZ schrieb Dan Wilcox <danomatika@gmail.com>:
>> I don't know if I would be in favor of something built-in that is specifically JSON, but maybe more allow for nesting lists.
>>
>>
> this.
>
> and while this was shot down when I proposed it back then, I still think that using curlies for nested lists would be the simplest solution.
>
>
> mfg.sfg.jfd
> IOhannes
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