--- On Mon, 12/6/10, Lorenzo Sutton <lsut...@libero.it> wrote:
> From: Lorenzo Sutton <lsut...@libero.it> > Subject: Re: [PD] Tip of the Day > To: > Cc: "Jonathan Wilkes" <jancs...@yahoo.com>, pd-list@iem.at > Date: Monday, December 6, 2010, 10:42 AM > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [PD] Tip of the Day > From: Jonathan Wilkes <jancs...@yahoo.com> > To: pd-list@iem.at, > Lorenzo Sutton <lsut...@libero.it> > Date: 06/12/10 10:26 > > > > --- On Mon, 12/6/10, Lorenzo Sutton<lsut...@libero.it> > wrote: > > > >> From: Lorenzo Sutton<lsut...@libero.it> > >> Subject: Re: [PD] Tip of the Day > >> To: pd-list@iem.at > >> Date: Monday, December 6, 2010, 9:28 AM > >> Jonathan Wilkes wrote: > >>> Hi, > >>> What do > people think of > >> the little "Tip of the Day" windows that > >>> are in some software? Are they helpful? > >> Annoying? > >> My two cents. > >> I think they are pretty useless and annoying, as > randomly > >> suggesting something doesn't add any help to the > total > >> beginner ("did you know you can type ctrl+1 to > create a new > >> object?"... well thank you but I'd really like to > know how > >> to make those cool sounds in pd like the > videos I saw > >> on youtube!) > >> > >> But I guess it's a matter of personal taste. > >> > >> Maybe, though, some of those "tips" could go in > some sort > >> of Pd quick tutorial or cookbook... but searchable > and well > >> indexed? > > I was trying to focus on matters of edition and odds > and ends that > > are easy to overlook in such tutorials. Every > one of the tips is > > covered somewhere in Pd's help docs, but they're all > scattered > > about. > > > > As for searchable and well-indexed-- that's the idea > of the META > > subpatch, which I've added to all the internal help > patches as well > > as many external help patches, too. Not too long > ago I posted a > > screenshot of a search patch I made that dynamically > generates > > results in the form of link + object > description. I've done the > > same for Miller's tutorials but I have no idea whether > he'll include > > them or not. > IMHO *that* is a very good idea.. searching for some > library/external one doesn't always use and can't remember > the exact name (including upper-lowecase mixes) can be a > headache and often ends up with clumsy and not-so efficient > find . -iname something in the /usr/lib/pd-extended > dir :) > > I can't recall if there was some discussion on the list > about help files "best practices", ideally there should > always be a comment or the object itself with a brief > (meaningful) description like: > > [osc~] - cosine wave oscillator That would be: DESCRIPTION cosine wave oscillator So in my search patch you can type "oscillator" and get a match. You can also search for particular keys/values: "@AUTHOR Miller Puckette" returns all (well, most) of the internal objects, and "@INLET_0 symbol @OUTLET_0 symbol" gives you makefilename, openpanel, iemlib/splitfilename, iemlib/stripfilename, etc. Unfortunately there are A LOT of externals that have stop-gap help files without any descriptions (or even example patches). -Jonathan > > This way one could easily index externals and > abstractions... abstractions are types of external-- at least I treat them the same by assuming they should all have their own help patches. (Although they do get tagged with the keyword "abstraction" so one could narrow a search that way.) > I had hacked a python script to create a > single html page of an extrernals dir a while back but it > was pretty crude. > > Lorenzo > > > _______________________________________________ Pd-list@iem.at mailing list UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> http://lists.puredata.info/listinfo/pd-list