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-
- Tcl for Pd
- ==========
-
-This library allows to to write externals for Pd using the Tcl language.
-
-It is based on the standard API of PD (defined in m_pd.h, plus some other
-private header files, like g_canvas.h, s_stuff.h, ...).
-
-Also a library of Tcl helper functions is provided. It is not mandatory to use
-it (moreover: it requires Tcl 8.5, while the tclpd external alone requires only
-Tcl 8.4), but it is a syntactic sugar and can simplify a lot the code.
-Using it is as simple as sourcing pdlib.tcl in your Tcl external.
-
-Anyway, disregarding any approach chosen to develop Tcl externals, a general
-knowledge of Pd internals (atoms, symbols, symbol table, inlets, objects) is
-strongly required. (Pd-External-HOWTO is always a good reading)
-
-
- Compiling and installing
- ========================
-
-To compile tclpd, simply type:
-
- make clean all
-
-To compile it with debug enabled:
-
- make DEBUG=1 clean all
-
-Requirements are pd >= 0.39, swig, c++ compiler.
-To install tclpd, simply copy it to /usr/lib/pd/extra (or where you installed
-pure-data).
-
-
- Writing GUI externals
- =====================
-
-Pd is split into two processes: pd (the core) and pd-gui.
-A simple pd external just runs in the core. A simple Tcl externals still runs
-in the core, because tclpd creates a Tcl interpreter for that.
-
-Instead, pd-gui has its own Tcl interpreter. In order to to GUI things (i.e.
-draw on the canvas, or react to mouse events), the core process needs to
-communicate with the pd-gui process (generally sending Tk commands, or calling
-procedures defined in the pd-gui interp.
-This is done with the sys_gui() function, if using the plain API.
-
-Also pdlib.tcl provide means to simplify this task, with the guiproc function,
-which defines procedures directly into the pd-gui interpreter.
-
-As a counterexample, I'd like to cite tot/toxy/widget externals, which you may
-be familiar with.
-Such externals run in the pd-gui process. That was fine for writing simple gui
-externals, that don't need to react to any message.
-But, for instance, you cannot do a metronome or anything which is timing
-accurate, or heavy IO, as that is not the purpose of the gui process.
-Tclpd instead, by running in the core process, allows that.
-
-
- Data conversion between Tcl <=> Pd
- ==================================
-
-In pd exists 'atoms'. An atom is a float, a symbol, a list item, and such.
-Tcl does not have data types. In Tcl everything is a string, also numbers and
-lists. Just when something needs to be read as number, then evaluation comes
-in.
-This leads to loss of information about atom types. Imagine a
-symbol '456' comes into tclpd, you won't know anymore if "456"
-is a symbol or a float.
-
-Here a little convention comes in: in tclpd an atom gets converted into a
-two-item list, where first item is atom type, and second item is its value.
-
-Some examples of this conversion:
-
- Pd: 456
- Tcl: {float 456}
-
- Pd: symbol foo
- Tcl: {symbol foo}
-
- Pd: list cat dog 123 456 weee
- Tcl: {{symbol cat} {symbol dog} {float 123} {float 456} {symbol wee}}
-
-
- Examples
- ========
-
-I provided small examples.
-after loading pd with option '-lib tcl', just type the filename
-(minus the .tcl extension) to load the Tcl externals examples.
-
-actually there is one simple example: list_change (behaves like
-[change] object, but work with lists only)
-
-examples make use of pdlib.tcl. It's still possible to port the example to use
-only the plain Pd api. Contributions are welcome.
-
-
- Authors
- =======
-
-Please refer to AUTHORS file found in tclpd package.
-
-
- License
- =======
-
-Please refer to COPYING file found in tclpd package.
-
-