[L2Ork-dev] Patch private abstractions

Jonathan Wilkes jon.w.wilkes at gmail.com
Wed Aug 5 16:48:19 EDT 2020


On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 3:33 PM Matt Barber <brbrofsvl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There are objects which use command line style flags for subcommands without too much difficulty, if it turns out they're needed.

That's true.

We could also add an abcontrol or abinfo object as well.

Just imagining a bunch of little ab'bers that attenuate their output
based on the total number of instances. And that
brings up two features I can think of-- methods that return useful
state of the ab'bers, and a way for the ab'bers to broadcast
messages/events.

I guess binding to the shared ab name solves the 2nd one. I don't know
if we need an [ab send] and [ab receive] so that
messages can be abstraction-local.

My brain keeps coming back to the flyweight pattern of something like
[ab define] for storing your big array and
all the business logic, and the abstraction instances just do simple
calls into that. But I'm pretty sure that's just
premature optimization, possibly pointless given that there is such
little cost to duplicating the binbuf for each abstraction. That's one
of the reasons I mentioned the "realtime" dev process-- to try to stay
on task so we don't end up just reimplementing XML namespaces by the
end of the summer. :)

Finally-- it probably goes without saying, but [ab] in whatever form
Guillem decides upon will be a *huge* usability
improvement for the webapp.

-Jonathan

>
> On Wed, Aug 5, 2020, 1:59 PM Jonathan Wilkes <jon.w.wilkes at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I'd like to invoke the realtime performance analogy for development
>> software that's somewhere on the Purr Data GSoC page. That is: remove
>> everything that isn't strictly needed in the hot path of development,
>> and then see if the result is enough to fit the common use cases.
>>
>> Global default scope would at first glance appear to fit that process
>> because that's what Pd normally does.But it forces
>> $0 for the common case of local scope and also creates unsolvable
>> syncing/caching problems for even modestly
>> complex data:
>>
>> 1. On Monday, a user creates [struct foo] in one patch and creates a
>> data structure in a 2nd patch.
>> 2. On Tuesday, a user only opens the first patch and changes the
>> definition of [struct foo], then saves and closes it.
>> 3. On Wednesday, a user only opens the 2nd patch.
>> 3. On Thursday, a user opens the first patch, then opens the second patch.
>>
>> The problem is similar for global scope among glists. Unless I'm
>> missing an obvious solution, I think solving that problem for
>> all cases will eat your development time. Worse, we have no common use
>> case where that level of complexity is needed.
>>
>> Perhaps a good starting point is this: what's the most efficacious way
>> to get from this feature to using [clone] to create
>> many versions of the abstraction? Say, for the purpose of creating
>> massive polyphony. That will be a common use case.
>>
>> From there I think the best place to go is to just implement it (like
>> what you had in your presentation yesterday) and
>> make a merge request so we can begin playing around with it and
>> testing out some of the common use cases.
>>
>> One thought-- [ab <name>] makes it tricky to later add subcommands to
>> [ab]. A user may have already used
>> that name for their abstraction. But again, we know [ab <name>] is
>> ergonomic for users and you implemented it already.
>> So let's see how far that takes us...
>>
>> -Jonathan
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 1:09 PM Matt Barber <brbrofsvl at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > I see three basic approaches to scope:
>> >
>> > 1. [ab <name>] abstractions are treated as every bit as local as [pd <name>] subpatches, except for each instance has a private $0. [ab <name>] definitions do not cross file boundaries, either up to parent or down to file abstractions, but the can cross [ab <name>] boundaries, so that [ab lob] first defined as root->[pd foo]->[ab bar]->[ab lob] can be instantiated anywhere else in root except in another [ab lob] or descendant, or across a file boundary. This is probably the most Pd-like, and what I'd likely go with by default, as it fits best with the pd/ab object analogy.
>> >
>> > 2. [ab <name>] abstractions are treated as strictly private as file abstractions, so definitions inside cannot pass out to parent or down to other [ab <name>] descendents]. In other words you treat [ab <name>] as though it were a file boundary. This is also pretty Pd-like, and I would likely go with it if we were going with a model where you could [ab define jinx] and then use [jinx] on its own without needing to call the [ab] object.
>> >
>> > 3. [ab <name>] abstractions are treated as a kind of hybrid. [ab lob] defined as [ab bar]->[ab lob] can be used in any instance of [ab bar] and descendents (including [ab <name>] descendents) but not in parent or root. If root already has an [ab lob] defined, it will be replaced by the new definition in [ab bar] instances. This is normal programming local scope, is elegant, and is therefore least Pd-like.
>> >
>> > Other considerations:
>> >
>> > You could send messages to ab-<name> and access every instance.
>> >
>> > Name clash. Should the [ab] names be their own separate thing, so that [ab counter] and a file abstraction called by [counter] are different? Is that even possible? Likewise should [ab float] be possible without conflicting with builtin, or [ab z~] without conflicting with an external? This could preclude use with [clone], except it could still be done with [clone ab-counter] to distinguish from the file-defined [clone counter].
>> >
>> > I don't have strong opinions about that yet.
>> >
>> > What happens if one deletes all instances of [ab foo]? I think the patch should somehow remember the definition so that it can be instantiated again. That probably means it should be hoisted to root and not associated with any instances at all.
>> >
>> > Will [savestate] work? It doesn't work with [clone]. What does [initbang] do if you are trying to use it to dynamically patch inside instances (I think it should behave about like it does in file abstractions, but there could be problems I haven't thought of yet).
>> >
>> > Matt
>> >
>> > On Wed, Aug 5, 2020 at 7:08 AM Guillem Bartrina <guillembartrina at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Hi,
>> >>
>> >> In the last meeting we (more or less) conclude that the most ergonomic approach is the one that simply uses [ab <name>], with implicit creation and deletion for the shared abstraction definition and an implicit flat scope (instantiable by the whole subpatch/abstractions tree, even if first definition was in an other branch or a deeper level or inside an abstraction).
>> >>
>> >> Local scope for these kind of abstractions will be achieved using [ab $0-<name>].
>> >>
>> >> * This 'local scope' won't be, in fact, a real local scope but the string '$0-name' is much harder to reproduce by the user because he must know the '$0' ID of the patch where the local abstraction has been created.
>> >>
>> >> If a real local scope is wanted then we will have to deal with conditional behaviour that may make the feature even harder to implement.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> The flat scope mentioned above scares me a little because it might be the source of a lot of problems. To start with, a clean and strong storing and lookup system for the shared abstraction definitions must be designed and tested.
>> >>
>> >> Possible problems:
>> >>
>> >> - We have to prevent instantiating abstractions within themselves (or one of their descendants).
>> >>
>> >> - Possible name clash with other private abstractions when instantiating file-based abstractions.
>> >>
>> >> - Where should the abstraction definitions be stored within the pd file, to prevent code repetition like the subpatches? Maybe hoisted inside the root patch definition, as is currently implemented.
>> >>
>> >> ----------------------------
>> >>
>> >> The first approach I showed you yesterday was based on Jonathan's approach:
>> >>
>> >> > 1. Implicit as you describe above. Rule: the names go from the root>
>> >> > down to the subpatches without
>> >> > affecting file-based abstractions in the root or the subpatches. If
>> >> > the [ab name] exists inside a file-based abstraction, it doesn't
>> >> > affect the parent on which the abstraction was created.
>> >>
>> >> If I understood correctly, the goal now is the same but the scope now crosses file boundaries.
>> >>
>> >> Best,
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
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>> >
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