Hello and thanks for checking,

I am confused with datatypes -lists and symbols- when using them with trigger, msgfile and list objects.

If you check the attached patch it should be clear what I do not understand, but let me explain:

I am building a part of a bigger patch. The part does this:

receive text (from a sort of chat)
get date/time through "shell" and prepend it to the text.
append "
"
append "insert"
send to msgfile
bang a script

A message constructed like this looks like:



insert 17/09/13-20:57 Hello how are you?

problem 1:

object is outputting a symbol ?
problem 2: sometimes trigger receives a list and tells me "can only convert 's' to 'b' or 'a'"
problem 3: sometimes msgfile receives a list and tells me "no method for symbol"

Can somebody explain, please? or direct me to a place where to read and undesrtand?

Alternatively you can propose a better way to construct that message, because my way looks terrible, jeje.

Thank you very much

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

yes datatypes with lists and symbols can be confusing... in pd every atom has a selector (e.g. float or symbol or list or something like that). sometimes when there is no selector pd does not know what to do and conversely when there is it can generate unwanted behavior. What is happening here is that msgfile is getting a message beginning with the 'list' selector when it is expecting an 'insert' selector. therefore putting a

before the msgfile fixes it for me. (which trims the selector). is not outputting a symbol I don't think (though I believe it does if there is just one symbol in the list, maybe check out the list help file for more info). The msgfile just happens to be interpreting it as a symbol.
I didn't get your trigger error but if it happens you can use 'a' (for 'anything') instead of 'l'. Trigger will then pass an atom with any selector

Thank you very much, I will attempt what you propose.

May I ask if you would suggest a better way of doing all that text constructing?

thanks again.

seems good to me, i'd use list append instead of zl join cause I like using vanilla objects over objects in cyclone but that doesn't really affect the functionality

thanks