On Mon, Oct 05, 2009 at 12:33:19PM +0100, alex wrote:
> 2009/10/5 Dave Griffiths <dave_at_pawfal.org>:
> > The difference between text and graphical programming seems fairly
> > arbitrary to me
>
> Pd and max are not graphical programming languages. They are textual.
> They are no more visual than C. You make an object and it does
> nothing until you give it a name. Then you connect it to other
> objects also with names. You move the boxes around the screen and the
> meaning doesn't change (except with weird edge cases in Max, but
> that's a side issue).
The meaning doesn't change with the position of hte boxes, but it does change
with the connections between the boxes. You can't express those connections
without the graphics in Pd and Max, whilst you can in other languages. This is
what makes them "graph"ical languages I beleive. I guess the connections replace
named temporary variables in other languages.
Hmmm, technically this is incorrect - you can actually patch with sends and
receives, but nobdy does. Also you can dynamically patch connections but it's a
real pain.
You can also write Pd patches in a text file, but nobody does (sometimes people
do Dave's replace trick though).
Chris.
-------------------
http://mccormick.cx
Received on Mon Oct 05 2009 - 12:57:05 BST