On Tue, 1 Aug 2000, Larry Troxler wrote:

A method for this is defined in most (all?) of the DSP objects, but I can't find anything in the core PD code that sends this message.

What is it's purpose, and what sends it to the objects?

the "ft1-message" is no message in common sense. "ft1" is simply the identifier of the second inlet (this is defined somehow in the code :: add_inlet(..., "ft1"), and add_method(..., "ft1")) So everytime, a float is sent to the second inlet (the "ft1"inlet) it's just the same as if you would send a "ft1 <float>" into the first inlet: of course no one will do this, since we WANT to use the second inlet.

you could chose any name instead of "ft1", pe "knuddelmuddel", but of course "ft1" reads like "float1" (in contrast to "float" which would be the identifier for (???))

as far as i've seen this is the only clean solution to perform a function callre when anything (! note !: "anything" stand for anything but an "anything": floats, symbols, lists, pointers, bangs; a real "anything" is like a list, but real lists have the identifier "list" as first atom or a float as first atom, whereas an "anything" will have some other symbol) is sent to the second/third/... inlet. if you don't need a function call when using a minor inlet (you see: pds programming paradigma says that all minor (right) inlets should create no outputs: most of the times (?) no output will also mean that you don't have to do calculations when using a minor inlet. so minor inlets a used for setting the environment only) you can write directly into memory (there are some examples in the code). if you need a function call you'll have to need an identifier. chose your identifiers wisely: for example "list" would be a bad one, since everytime a list is send to the left inlet, this would be as if you would have talked to the left inlet. if you define an identifier "set" for the second inlet, "<setting>" to the second inlet would do exactly the same as "set <setting>" to the first inlet.

think, that's it

mfg.sad.r iohannes

Larry