Hi List,

I'm new to PD, GEM and computer video but am familiar with midi in max. I have a few questions. PD and gem seem like truly wonderfull and amazing tools but I need to get my bearings.

Is there any way to start up PD so it knows my audio and midi prefs - so I dont have to reset this if it crashes (I'm using the wish&tc&tk shell installation)? Maybe something in the terminal when I run it? Is there some preference file for the mac components I can tweak?

So what's the best strategy for dealing with presets in patches as there is no preset object? I noticed that there is no preset module like in MAX. I read the "differeces from max/msp" section but am still unclear. Do I need to make lots of message boxes and click all of them?

Is there any Show/hide for cables?

Is this the best place on the web to hang out and ask questions to learn about PD and GEM?

Also is there any place I can see where inlets and outlets go to or what signal they want?

Thanks a lot in advance.
-b

personally i think this is the best place on the web to hang out. ...would be good if more peple posted though.

in regard to presets....you need to write things to textfiles, and save them there. ...there is an example of this .../doc/7.stuff/synth

as far as i know you can't hide your cables. but you can use [send] [recieve] pairs to annihilate the really annoying ones off the face of this planet.

anyways, welcome to our merry forum pencilina.

. for the startup, the preferences is called "flags", you can specify audioi, midi, font , path for your abstractions etc ....
In OsX, I don't know where is the startup files. I remember edit a file pd.command somehwere
for an help with flags see: [url=http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/x3.htm#s4 ]http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/Pd_documentation/x3.htm#s4

. for preset , it's a real question. the object qlist, textfile would interest you. You can also use just array to store values. save it and open it like this :
[url=http://giair.music.free.fr/patchs/partage/array/enregistrer_array.gif ]http://giair.music.free.fr/patchs/partage/array/enregistrer_array.gif

there is another object in other libraries : pbank from pdjimmies, xeq from ?, and matrix.

Another way is built with the Rradical solution : [url=http://puredata.info/community/projects/convention04/lectures/tk-barknecht/ ]http://puredata.info/community/projects/convention04/lectures/tk-barkn echt/
It seems to be powerful.

. hide cables is impossible but a right click on a subpatch and select graph on parent works well. or use canvas.

. the best way to talk is here in anglish or in idecibel.com in french. the mailing list is very a specialist discussion, not focus on newbie.

. inlets and outlets of an object is showed with a right click on the object and selecting help. for better comprehension you can add a comments near your inlets or outlets to be more clear.

Thank you so much. I'm going to try and figure some of this out
-b

wow man...i just checked out your website....that pencilina is really a cool instrument. sounds pretty good too.

also, that video interview you did...the girl (i assume she was the presenter?) is really sexy. did you get her phone number?

inlets and outlets of an object is showed with a right click on the object and selecting help. for better comprehension you can add a comments near your inlets or outlets to be more clear.

For your subpatches and abstractions you can add text to the [inlet] and [inlet~] objects that will show up as tool-tips when you hover over the object: This is limited to one identifier, so use "-" instead of " ", and unfortunately there are not tooltips for outlets.



Here the mouse pointer is hovering over the first inlet on the [pd ...] object, unfortunately I haven't worked out how to capture screen output including the mouse pointer...

I tested this with:
Pd version 0.37.1 devel
compiled 19:56:47 Jul 10 2004

_. hide cables is impossible but a right click on a subpatch and select graph on parent works well. or use canvas. _

Frank Barknecht posted a very useful HOWTO Graph-On-Parent (GOP) on the mailing list recently (well, about 5 weeks ago):

""""
Hallo

I do this in the following way:

1. use a [cnv] object as a background,
2. Put all you want to see on top of the background [cnv]
3. remember its dimensions as x and y.
4. Set "Graph On Parent" to true.
5. resize the abstraction, so that only the bg-cnv plus about 15 pixel
   above it are visible. The empty space above is for the abstraction
   name.
6. save, close, File->New, put: [your_gop_abs]
7. Right-click [your_gop_abs], edit Properties:
   Set width to: x (from above) + 2 pixels
   Set height to: y (from above) + 15 pixels.
   Save properties.
8. Right-click again and Open your [your_gop_abs]
9. SAVE it! Yes, again! This is important, as the resizing done in the
   parent patch in step 7) is not saved yet in the child abstraction.
10. you migtht need to fiddle a bit with the positions of graphical
    objects.
    
    That's it.
    
    Ciao
    """"
    
    This method has given me very good results.

CM thank you very much for your help in this and the other topic. The tool tips thing is great unfortunately it doesn't work on my install (OS X .038 test) no biggie I'll just write the comments in the in/outlets and hope it does in the future. The canvas tip is very cool but I feel very frustrated with the way canvases translate (get drawn) onto the parent patch. Especially with radio box descriprions. It's too much trouble for me now to make things pretty and I'm actually kind of liking the rough look.

BTW In case anyone was wondering. My solution for saving parameters in my patches is using the number2 and slider objects with properties set to remember the init value. Also, file paths can be set $1 after the [openpanel] in message boxes and [loadbang]ed back into patches. The modifed patch can be saved under a new name. Unfortunately the patch's modified flag doesn't get triggered unless you go into edit mode so you won't get prompted by your system to save anything if you close the window and forget to save.

later -b