Thank you @whale-av, that certainly helps. I didn't know about edit mode and although on my computer and version of PD it doesn't remove edit focus from the floatatom it is something I'll find useful in future. The subpatch opening in a new window and being closed using esc even when floatatom has edit focus does work and I don't get the error message so thank you.
escToClose.pd

I needed the floatatom to appear as a gop rather than in a separate window but I think I'll just have a commit button to take focus off the floatatom and hide the gop and floatatom input can provide a preview of the result before commit.

Thanks as always, much appreciated.

for those who don't want to get their console mucky...

editFocusError.pd

Here is a patch demonstrating the error message. Warning: PD requires a quit and restart after the error.

Hello, I've got some nested donecanvasdialogs controlling subpatches which I'm using to control different parameters of the same job. I'm using floatatoms to enter the values but when I close the subpatches (using escape via keyname) I get...
(Tcl) INVALID COMMAND NAME: invalid command name ".x96979f400.c"
while executing
"$tkcanvas focus $tag"
(procedure "pdtk_text_editing" line 4)
invoked from within
"pdtk_text_editing .x96979f400 {.x969564000.t967c0a380} 1 "
("uplevel" body line 53)
invoked from within
"uplevel #0 $docmds"(Tcl) UNHANDLED ERROR: bad window path name ".x96979f400.c"
while executing
"selection clear $tkcanvas"
(procedure "pdtk_text_editing" line 3)
invoked from within
"pdtk_text_editing .x96979f400 {} 0 "
("uplevel" body line 1)
invoked from within
"uplevel #0 $docmds"

This doesn't happen when I click outside the floatatom to deselect it before pressing escape. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get the floatatom to lose edit focus after I've committed the input?

Thank you in advance

~~

That's wonderful @oid, thank you. I didn't know how to use [sel] like that and [v] is new to me. Very helpful.

~~

Hello,

I wondered if there was a way to compare consecutive symbols in a list (chord symbols in my case but I suppose it applies to text too) to look for duplicates. I've attempted something but it's pretty long-winded and I'm sure there has to be a better way in PD. I'd be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions.

compare_consecutive_symbols.pd

Thanks

~~

Thanks @kyro - yes I've found that what you said works. The else library help files referred by @whale-av sets out the steps very clearly and has solved my problem. The [set] help file in vanilla was causing a great deal of confusion because even though it works in the [symbol fish]>[set -symbol pointer s] example I was just getting set: empty pointer when I recreated the help file verbatim.

Ah! Thank you @whale-av!

Thank you for your reply @whale-av. The graphical symbols have extended the scope of what I was looking for which was initially just text. Still struggling with the various components of data structures but many thanks for your help - certainly nudged me back on track.