# in canvas label

Reply to # in canvas label on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 08:02:12 GMT

driedstr — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 08:02:12 GMT

Hello everyone,

For some reason when I include a # in a canvas label, it's rendered as a $. For example, I have a canvas object which receives "c1" and when I send "label F#" to c1, it shows on the canvas as "F$".

This happens in pd-extended and purrdata. Is there a type conversion I'm missing or am I doing something else wrong? Is this a known quirk of pd?

Thanks!

Reply to # in canvas label on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 08:50:47 GMT

alexandros — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 08:50:47 GMT

I guess # is a special character in Pd. If you open a Pd patch in a text editor, you'll see that all lines begin with #. I tried what you describe (I just set the name "test#" through canvas' properties, didn't send a symbol to it) and it's true indeed. I did save a test patch and then edited it in nano (terminal based text editor) like this:

#N canvas 343 280 450 300 10;
#X obj 107 93 cnv 15 100 60 empty empty test\# 20 12 0 14 -233017 -66577 0;

Notice that I put a "" before # which is an escape character for special characters. Now, when I open the patch, the canvas reads "test#".
I tried to simulate this in a patch by sending the message "list 92 70 35" to [list tosymbol] (these values are ASCII "", "F", and "#") and then to a message "set label $1", which is sent to an empty message, but this results in "\F#", and when sent to a canvas, it results in "\F$".
I think # (and ) is out of the question for use inside Pd patches, but if someone can prove me wrong, I'd be happy to see that.

Reply to # in canvas label on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:16:14 GMT

whale-av — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:16:14 GMT

@alexandros And if you put a $ in a property box send/receive name it magically transforms to hash....... so the opposite.
What a wonderful world!
David.

Reply to # in canvas label on Thu, 02 Mar 2017 11:39:33 GMT

whale-av — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 11:39:33 GMT

And it's weirder than that.......
Notice the hash converted to dollars and "vice"-versa in the properties dialog....
Could this be political?....... Columbia University?....... cartel.pd
David.

Reply to # in canvas label on Tue, 07 Mar 2017 06:31:52 GMT

driedstr — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 06:31:52 GMT

@whale-av, your hash labels actually work as expected in purrdata.

Here's what I just found out after a little more tinkering: sending a hash as a symbol to a canvas label in purrdata works as expected UNLESS there's a digit after it, then it turns to a dollarsign. Furthermore, if that digit happens to be a 0, it turns into 1003, eg

[A#0(
|
[label $1(
|
[s my-canvas]     

[A1003] // my-canvas

Unfortunately this leads me no closer to being able to nicely display scientific pitch notation (eg, G#4) in a canvas.

Reply to # in canvas label on Tue, 07 Mar 2017 07:06:46 GMT

whale-av — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 07:06:46 GMT

@driedstr You might be able to do it by dripping G#4 into [list fromsymbol] then prepending whitespace (32) and then turning it into a real symbol that ignores whitespace using [list tosymbol]
The # might then no longer be recognised as a special character.
David.

Reply to # in canvas label on Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:37:42 GMT

LiamG — Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:37:42 GMT

I wish my #### turned into $$$$ in real life as well!