doniguan@stny.rr.com wrote:

I am too having trouble loading simple externals. Im trying to install percolate. I have all the files in the lib/pd/ folder, but i dont know how to get them to work. It sais something along the lines of,

type load -percolate when you start pd, but i dont understand what that means.

hi.

to pass arguments to pd you must either open a shell (aka: DOS-box) (with "Start->Execute..." and running "cmd" on "modern" systems) or use and edit a .bat-file. starting pd with simply clicking on the "pd.exe" will not allow you to pass arguments.

1. one of the most important flags for pd is the "-verbose" flag; it

gives a lot of interesting (and mostly uninteresting) information on the stderr (which is displayed in the DOS-box) so the command line would look like "pd.exe -verbose"

2. normally pd tries to search and find unknown objects and libraries on

several paths, e.g: "/path/to/my/pd/extra"; you can add additional paths with the "-path" flag such command line would look like "pd.exe -path /path/to/my/libraries/"

3. to load a library use "-lib <libraryname>", eg "-lib zexy".

this library is searched in the built-in and in the specified (see (2)) paths.

when trying (and failing) to load a library it will say something like " tried /my/home/asdf.pd_linux and failed tried /usr/lib/pd/extra/asdf.pd_linux and failed asdf: can't load library "

when trying (and succeeding) to load a library it will probably say " tried /my/home/qwer.dll and failed tried /usr/lib/pd/extra/qwer.dll and succeeded "

so go and have a try: "pd.exe -verbose -path /path/to/my/percolate/ -lib percolate"

go and figure out what the errors on the shell mean.

notes: a) cases *might* matter b) avoid spaces in path-names, e.g. "-path C:\Program Files\pd" is a *very* bad place to put things in.

mfg.a.sdf IOhannes