I looked for a subpatch that would work but have not found one yet.

So, is there a standard subpatch that sets a string of characters to an array after hitting return?

Still learning the proper language to use around here. Sorry for my lack ahead of time from improper syntax.

Essentially, I can use a single keystroke to enter a value into a number box. However, what if I want to allow for the user to insert a value in the 10s, 100s, 1000s, or so forth. I could make the subpatch, but I just have to believe there is one already created.

@raynovich graphical symbol objects can do what you describe I believe. you can enter a symbol and press enter, which sends the symbol

Essentially, I can use a single keystroke to enter a value into a number box. However, what if I
want to allow for the user to insert a value in the 10s, 100s, 1000s, or so forth. I could make the
subpatch, but I just have to believe there is one already created.

Not quite sure what you mean by this. Why would a user put in base 10 things separately? anyway, if this is really what is desired you could do this (I don't know of an existing abstraction for this): The Hradio selects the power of 10

[numberbox)   [h][r][a][d][i][o]
|             /
[clip 0 9]   /
|           /
[int]      [10 $1(
|         /
|        [pow]
|       /
|      /
|     /
[*    ]
|
[out-to-somewhere-else]

you could also feed the [int] into a [set $1( message box that goes into the original number box in order to reflect the clipping and int in the graphical display.

@raynovich I cannot really understand the original post, but my best guess is that you don't really need a patch for that.

Right click on a number box, choose Properties, and establish the output range, i.e. the minimum and the maximum.

You can also set a proper width (i.e. a width that is representative of the quantity of expected digits).

Thanks all. I am not being clear. Sorry about that.

Let's say I wanted a user of my patch to be able to set the name of a Message box.

So that the box would say |William(

I know that the user could just go into the Pure Data file and go to said box and go into edit mode and type my name.

However, let's say upon opening I use loadbang, and upon loadbang I want the user to input his or her name without having to know to go to the box I want that name to be in.

Up to this point, I have figured out how to do this with one ascii translated number.

This is my first attempt at using the syntax in explaining something:

[loadbang]
|
[keyname]
_________ |
_________ |set $1(
_________ |
_________ |CHARACTER FROM SET(

That is the way to get ONE character from a keyname into a message box. So, if I did that with switch box, it could place one character into a message box that could be used for something else.

I can think through how to make a larger subpatch that could make a string of characters to string together and exit the function by hitting return. However, I am assuming that there is some subpatch that I can call to help with this.

Hopefully this makes a bit more sense. However, if it does not, then I will have to think of a much better way to ask the question, and I thank you so much for your help on this.

My math way of asking it was: I was asking the user at the beginning of my patch how many minutes the user would like the piece to be. This was asked at load bang. I have it set right now that once the user inputs ONE character 1 from 9, that value sets the length of the piece. If I want the user to be able to input a number that is double or triple or even more digits, how can I do that without creating my own subpatch?

Hopefully, that makes a bit more sense. And thank you so much for your quick replies.

Don't worry, keep on asking until you're satisfied. I don't know as much as many other people here, but I do my best, according to my own needs.

As far as I understand, you want a certain User to type a name into a box, and also set the name of a message box. User has never in her life heard about Pd, and ignores Edit mode, and those things, right?

Avoiding edit mode is easy. Just use a symbol box, (Put menu > Symbol). The symbol box doesn't require an active Edit mode.

So what about sthg like this:

[William) <---- this is a symbol box.
|
[set $1]
|
[William( <---- this is the message you want to use for stgh else.

Warning: it seems that Pd code doesn't display correctly in my browser, I didn't add colours to it. If you see different colours, please ignore them, think in monochrome! I think I will stop using this "4 spaces trick" for the time being. It's causing lots of weird issues, that or my browser, don't know yet.

@raynovich There are tons of ways to do this. I've made some patches going over 2 different ways:

This one opens a subpatch that holds a message box and waits for the enter key to be pressed before sending the box's contents to elsewhere in the patch. It automatically enters and exits Edit mode so the user doesn't have to worry about it. Right now it uses a message box, but that could easily be replaced with a symbol box if it's not important to be able to input multiple words:
input_text_simple.pd

The next one is a bit more complex and was a lot more fun to make. It uses dynamic patching to create canvases in a subpatch. It listens for valid keystrokes and interactively changes the canvases' labels until the user presses enter, when the input is captured and sent to the main part of the patch:

input_text_advanced.pd

The tricky thing about the second one is that it uses a non-fixed-width font, so it can sometimes mess up my guesses for the word width (in pixels), since some letters are a lot longer than others.

Edit: the advanced one has a dynamic [makefilename] patch too, which is pretty useful.

@cpenny42

This is EXACTLY what I am looking for! Thank you so much. I thought it was something someone already did!

Thank you so much!

@cpenny42 Your input_text_advanced.pd is fantastic! Such a clever idea

Thanks for sharing and take care,
Gilberto

So, next question:

Here is what I want to do:

Be able to create text that will pop up on canvases. This text may be a bit lengthy and I would want it to be on multiple lines. However, as I understand it, a canvas can ONLY have ONE line of text.

So, if I want, say 80 characters per line, but have words NOT split between lines. Is there a patch that makes this work with a list of words? And separate them onto different lines of text, I am guessing they would have to be on different canvases.

So, if I have the line.

I am going to the store and at the store I will buy milk, eggs, and cheese.

Let's say I need the "cheese" to go on the second line of text.

So,
canvas one would have: "I am going to the store and at the store I will buy milk, eggs, and"

canvas two would have: "cheese."

The first canvas would be set higher in the window from the second line of text. Now, a different thing to ask/say. . . . Is there a different system people use to do this type of thing? Where large amounts of text are placed on canvases in PD? Or do they use GEM? Help

William

You can convert the multi-line symbol to a list using [s2l] and count the number of characters using [list count]. Then use [moses] to direct the text onto different canvases. It won't be pretty, though.

I typed into a patch [list count]. It does not seem to be a patch. I tried it as one word as well [listcount].

Am I doing something wrong?

[list length], sorry.

Once you have counted your characters, as Liam suggests, you might be able to use ; (semi-colon) to go to the next line.. or semi-colon+return... it's an interesting project.. good luck!

Thanks. Got it working. Another potential issue. integers are not recognized as symbols. Right? So, for instance:

if I have the symbol a1b2c3.

That would be six characters. However, when I separate it out to a list of a, 1, b, 2, c, 3. Unpack does not totally work. . . . Well, it kind of works. I guess the main issue is, a number are recognized as float after it is separated out from the surrounding letters. Is there a way to make integers just characters?

Thanks so much for the help!

Ach. . . ., also it seems that a comma is not recognized as a character when using [symbol2list].

Anyway around that as well?

I've never found a way to get commas recognized as text in PD. This is a major limitation.

As to your first point, [unpack] is actually quite a clumsy way of dealing with lists. It can't cope with varying message types, as you identified, and it's also no good with lists of differing sizes. There are two objects which I find much more effective:

• [list-drip], which slices the list into floats and symbols

• [zl nth], which isolates the nth term of a list

[list-drip] lets you do things like this: