Hi Larry, and thank you for being persistent...

This is not your misunderstanding, it's just a plain old-fashioned bug in pd! In m_class.c, replace pd_defaultlist by the following, better commented and bugfixed version:

/* handle "list" messages to Pds without explicit list methods defined. */

static void pd_defaultlist(t_pd *x, t_symbol *s, int argc, t_atom *argv) { /* if the object is patchable (i.e., can have proper inlets) and if indeed it has at least one such, send it on to obj_list. */ if ((*x)->c_patchable && ((t_object *)x)->ob_inlet) obj_list((t_object *)x, s, argc, argv); /* a list with one element which is a number can be handled by a "float" method if any is defined; same for "symbol". */ else if (argc == 1 && argv->a_type == A_FLOAT && *(*x)->c_floatmethod != pd_defaultfloat) (*(*x)->c_floatmethod)(x, argv->a_w.w_float); else if (argc == 1 && argv->a_type == A_SYMBOL && *(*x)->c_symbolmethod != pd_defaultsymbol) (*(*x)->c_symbolmethod)(x, argv->a_w.w_symbol); else /* nothing matched, so revert to "anything" method. */ (*(*x)->c_anymethod)(x, &s_list, argc, argv); }

and then test with this "through" object:

/* through -- copy incoming messages to outlet. */

#include "m_pd.h"

static t_class *through_class;

typedef struct _through { t_object x_obj; t_outlet *x_outlet; } t_through;

static void *through_new(void) { t_through *x = (t_through *)pd_new(through_class); x->x_outlet = outlet_new(&x->x_obj, gensym("float")); return (x); }

static void through_anything(t_through *x, t_symbol *s, int argc, t_atom *argv) { post("argc2 %d", argc); outlet_anything(x->x_outlet, s, argc, argv); }

void through_setup(void) { through_class = class_new(gensym("through"), (t_newmethod)through_new, 0, sizeof(t_through), 0, 0); class_addanything(through_class, through_anything); }

I'm just grinding out a release in which I'll put the new code.

cheers Miller

On Sat, Jun 16, 2001 at 07:43:33PM -0400, Larry Troxler wrote:

Greetings again to the PD list.

I'm sorry to report that I think I am still "not getting it" regarding the concept of "messages", "lists", and "anythings".

I am running into this confusion in the course of making an object that calls into "Scheme In On Day". Eliminating lots of details, let's say I want to create an object that simply echoes its inlet to its outlet, whatever types they may be.

I am using class_addanything to handle messages at the (first) inlet. If I send a message [a 1 2], for example, then the argv is the atoms "a", "1", and "2". But if I send [10 20], argv are "float" and "10". So it seems in this case the "20" is dropped. But yet I know it is possible for an object to correctly receive a message like this, because [print] and [line~] handle this case ok.

I suspect that using class_addanything might not be enough, and I need also a class_addlist and possibly other handlers (in which case "addanything" might be innapropriately named?), but I'm afraid I'm still in the dark as to how this all works.

I humbly suspect that probably the answer would be simple if the concept of PD messages were better described somewhere. The PD code is fairly well commented, but I find it difficult to put the pieces of the puzzle together into the big picture.

I think it would be very instructive to have an example object in the distribution that simply echoes its input to its output. Can someone point me in this direction perhaps? If I get enough information, then as payment I will gladly code up such an object an post it.

Best Regards,

Larry Troxler