On further inspection ... I'm looking at 2.control.examples / 15.arrays, and it is frankly not at all helpful. Many things are not explained here. And when I create an array, the Help file is even worse. It refers to "Table", not to arrays at all.
In the control.examples window, I see functions like sinesum and cosinesum, but there is no indication of whether other such functions might exist, or what arguments they might want to see. I see a command for reading a text file, but with no documentation as to what format the text file should be in. And then there's the lovely sentence, "Arrays live in graphs and graphs may hold more than one array...." Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?
Did I just not download the real manual? (Like, the one with the index?) Or is this stuff really not explained anywhere?
--Jim Aikin
Hi Jim, The manual is separate from the help patches. You can find it using the <ctrl-b> browser, or online at: http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html.
The "Put" menu array that you are right-clicking is actually a graph, and a graph is a type of canvas. So when you choose "Help" you're getting canvas-help.pd, and on top of that, only one type of canvas is documented there: [table].
If you want the help patch for arrays, you can either: a) download my revisions of the pd docs at: http://puredata.info/Members/jwilkes/doc/at_download/file After you extract it you can just look in the 5.reference folder and find array-help.pd. Also check the link to all_about_arrays.pd. Or if you want you can copy all the stuff inside doc/doc/ and put it in your pd doc folder-- then you can get my revisions when you right-click "Help" for an object.
b) use the current help docs, right-click on your graph and choose "Open", move the mouse over the black line that represents the array elements, position the pointer so that the arrow turns backwards, keep the mouse still, right-click and choose "Help," read the console message that says "Sorry, couldn't find help patch for array.pd," then go to step "a" above.
Let me know if you found my revisions helpful, or if there's missing/wrong information you come across.
-Jonathan
From: Jim Aikin midiguru23@sbcglobal.net To: pd-list@iem.at Sent: Sun, June 6, 2010 11:20:56 PM Subject: [PD] More Questions about Documentation
On further inspection ... I'm looking at 2.control.examples / 15.arrays, and it is frankly not at all helpful. Many things are not explained here. And when I create an array, the Help file is even worse. It refers to "Table", not to arrays at all.
In the control.examples window, I see functions like sinesum and cosinesum, but there is no indication of whether other such functions might exist, or what arguments they might want to see. I see a command for reading a text file, but with no documentation as to what format the text file should be in. And then there's the lovely sentence, "Arrays live in graphs and graphs may hold more than one array...." Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?
Did I just not download the real manual? (Like, the one with the index?) Or is this stuff really not explained anywhere?
--Jim Aikin
Pd-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
On Sun, 6 Jun 2010, Jim Aikin wrote:
On further inspection ... I'm looking at 2.control.examples / 15.arrays, and it is frankly not at all helpful. Many things are not explained here. And when I create an array, the Help file is even worse. It refers to "Table", not to arrays at all.
If you make a [table hello] and a [s hello] and then send a message like "zzz" to it, you will find it says :
error: array: no method for 'zzz'
If you make an Array from the Put menu, you can do the exact same with it, but when you edit properties and turn off Graph-on-Parent, it appears like an ordinary objectbox saying [graph], but that's a lie : the objectbox is not editable. that's not normal.
Furthermore, if you make a Graph from the Put menu, you can turn off Graph-on-Parent and the same will happen, [graph], uneditable. This time you don't have a field to set a receive-symbol for the object.
But if you Open either the Array or the Graph and put a [namecanvas blah] inside and then send "zzz" to [s blah], you get :
error: canvas: no method for 'zzz'
If you think you're confused, open the source code and count how many of canvas' methods and functions have names that begin with "graph_" or "glist_" versus "canvas_". Then notice that there is no class for [table]... and [table] is not really an alias either... it's very special.
is this stuff really not explained anywhere?
I don't know...
_ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ... | Mathieu Bouchard, Montréal, Québec. téléphone: +1.514.383.3801
Pd-extended includes the PDDP docs, which are hopefully clearer.
.hc
On Jun 6, 2010, at 11:20 PM, Jim Aikin wrote:
On further inspection ... I'm looking at 2.control.examples /
15.arrays, and it is frankly not at all helpful. Many things are not
explained here. And when I create an array, the Help file is even
worse. It refers to "Table", not to arrays at all.In the control.examples window, I see functions like sinesum and
cosinesum, but there is no indication of whether other such
functions might exist, or what arguments they might want to see. I
see a command for reading a text file, but with no documentation as
to what format the text file should be in. And then there's the
lovely sentence, "Arrays live in graphs and graphs may hold more
than one array...." Sounds interesting, but what does it mean?Did I just not download the real manual? (Like, the one with the
index?) Or is this stuff really not explained anywhere?--Jim Aikin
Pd-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an
idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps
it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into
the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself
of it. - Thomas Jefferson
-
Hans-Christoph Steiner -
Jim Aikin -
Jonathan Wilkes -
Mathieu Bouchard