Hi, I'm fairly new to pd and am baffled at what is probably the lowest of hurdles...

When creating an output~ object in a *new* window, instead of getting the handy little box as used in the pd examples such as doc.3/audio examples/A05.output.subpatch.pd I get the attached...

If I create another output~ object in a patch that already has one (such as the aforementioned example patch) it creates the object correctly....

I'm totally baffled by this and would appreciate any help in understanding what's going on.

I have tried copying the example object~ canvas properties into my own but nothing happens (other than pd has sometimes crashed as a result)

EDIT: I'm using Pd version 0.40.3-extended-20080721 on a windows xp box

Thanks

Paul

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/output_bad.pd

Aha!

I thought this might be my big chance to demonstrate some little knowledge about such things,.. with the suggestion that you right-click your [output~] object, then 'Properties' in the sub-menu that will open up, so as to finally select and apply "Graph on Parent" in the window that will in turn then open.

However, I find upon doing this myself with your patch, that Pd crashes immediately every time (Win XP || 0.40.3-extended)

O well~:o/

G'night, and keep well ~ Shankar

Hey Shankar, thanks for trying and feeding back...seems we have a similar set-up in that we are both on xp and 0.40.3-extended...soooooo, if you don't mind trying it out for me, what happens if you create a new doc in pd and put an output~ object in there? Do you get the same object as in the example files or the same as I get?

Paul

Wellwellwell,

I see that I normally do an [output], not an [output~]. The former yields the ui that you want.

So, the tilde seems to be the dangerous fellow in Pd,.. as someone else here also found out recently upon prefixing it to adc, rather than the reverse.

Good luck, and keep well ~ Shankar

ok,

the [output~] that you see in the help patches is not actually an 'object' but rather it is an 'abstraction'. the difference is that an object is made of C code, where an abstraction is just a pd patch made of other pd objects. actually, any pd patch that you make can be used as an abstraction inside of other pd patches. if your pd patch is called 'crazyfilter.pd' then you would just type 'crazyfilter' into an object box, and then that patch can be used as an abstraction.

now, the reason why the [output] abstraction is not working for you, is that pd is not set to scan your entire hard drive everytime you use an abstraction. at startup, pd loads a group of directory paths that are searched when new objects are made. if you click on 'file' in the menu bar, you will see that there is a section for 'path'. the directories contained in there will be searched every time pd needs to find an object/file/etc.

so, if you create a new file, and try to create [output~], it won't load, because the path to the directory containing the output~.pd abstraction is not set. here you have a couple of options. the obvious one is to set .../doc.3/audio examples/ as a path.
however, i think a better option is to create a folder of your own called 'my-abstractions' or something like that. and set the path to that directory in the file->path menu. then, open the output~ abstraction, click 'save as' and save a copy into your my-abstractions folder.
that way you can use [output~] in any patch.

one more thing. as well as searching the directories listed in file->path, pd will also search the directory containing the currently opened patch. that is the reason why you can create [output~] in any of the doc.3/audio examples/ patches without specifically telling pd to search that path.