Hello

I'm trying to put a patch together to control another device via serial and it requires a number of symbols which PD uses to be printed on the serial output: { ,;\

I've tried to create a string using 'makefilename %c' with an input message and 'pack' to put the string together, however it seems to add backslashes between each thing input into the string. I think these are stopping the serial message being fully sent out (my serial monitor only gets as far as the first section added to the string). I'm then sending a print message with all the string arguments as $1, $2 etc

Is there another way that this could work without adding the backslashes between parts of the string?

@richtcello Yes.......backslashes are used internally in Pd, as in most other programs, to say "new message"....
What message are you trying to send? Could you give an example and detail of the variables.... floats, symbols, etc.......?
David.

Thanks David,

The message contains the "{" "," and "" symbols- it's a JSON query and there's a string of comma separated numbers in there- the string should be something like:

{"xx1":{"xx":[0, 1, 34, 56, 76, 89, 95]"xx":4}}\r

but it when sent to 'print' ends up being
{"xx1":{"xx":[0\, 1\, 34\, 56\, 76\, 89\,95]"xx": 4 } }\\r

It only seems to add backslashes to items added to the list in 'pack' from 'makefile %c' as symbols. If I change them to something which isn't replaced by a character this doesn't happen. I've no idea why the comma and backslash seem to add additional backslashes. Numbers are all floats, but it shouldn't really matter as at this point they're just being printed.

Hello @richtcello

i was exactly on the same search short time ago, and the only solution i really had, was trying to "assemble" a [textfile] with some other [textfiles], to accomplish what i was looking for: write the following file with the input data:

network={
ssid="testing"
psk="testingPassword"
}

So, look close all the guts, and maybe it will help you
Wifi.zip

Greener

@richtcello
@greener is probably correct. The commas can be added to the message using "addcomma" in a [set( message, but "backslash" will be escaped for sure. I am surprised that you managed to get curly braces into the message without them being escaped (and very interested to see your patch...!). The whole message might work by enclosing it in double quotes (maybe passing it through [symbol] to turn it into a string) and the json interpreter might accept that even with the escape backslashes ......... uncertain though.
David.

Thank you Greener and David,

It looks like the forum is also escaping backslashes! There should be 2 in front of the commas, one in front of '{' and 4 in front of 'r'.

I'm actually finding a single backslash is escaped by the time it gets to the serial port, but multiples aren't- the problems are just the commas and backslash before 'r' for the carriage return at the end

I'm using a 'print $1$2$3...' message to print the string to the serial port and that seems to be adding (even more) backslashes to these problem areas. 'addcomma' will only send to a message and PD treats it as a command once it's in the message box.

It's looking like I've found another way around this (which isn't using PD, though)

Richard