[maxmsp] Re: max 5 new patcher preferences, grid and more

On May 2, 2008, at 3:18 AM, f.e wrote:
> EXACTLY. So simply said.
>
> jvkr a écrit :
>>> You mean, inlets and outlets should be what snap to grid, instead  
>>> of the box itself.
>>


Ah, so now I understand what you're after. I put this in the category  
of "over-constrained problem."

The first problem I see with this, is that objects are sized based on  
a couple things, the size of the text in the object, or if the object  
name is really short, the number of inlets and outlets.

Let's take a concrete example: counter. Counter has five inputs and  
four outputs, so right away it's in trouble lining up with a grid,  
with the current "all inlets/outlets evenly spaced" rule. Making  
either the Inlets or the Outlets conform to the grid required for the  
side with the larger number of I/O, would be ugly, I think. I guess if  
the side with the fewest "pins" was left justified, with a gap on the  
right it would work, but a lot of people are used to the way it works  
now.

Next, there's the challenge of a variable number of variable-width  
arguments to counter, such as:
counter
counter 10
counter 1 100
counter 2 1 10000
The object would have to quantize it's size based on the text in the  
object, the grid spacing, and the number of I/Os. It would have to  
have "lumpy spacing" on the output side, with a gap somewhere.

At the end of the day, I like that all all input and outputs are  
evenly spaced, so I wouldn't like changing things to accommodate such  
a gridded worldview.

Chris Muir
cbm at well.com	
http://www.xfade.com