Hi there,

Before I give you the solution change the following:

1) define your function like this:void input_list(MyObject *x, t_symbol *msg, long argc, t_atom *argv); Don't use short for argc. Use long.

2) don't access atom struct fields directly. The new Max/MSP API provides accessor functions such as:t_atom_long atom_getlong(const t_atom *a),t_atom_float atom_getfloat(const t_atom *a) andt_symbol *atom_getsym(const t_atom *a)

If you need to get the atom type you may use:long atom_gettype(const t_atom *a)

To answer your question: if ((argc == 2) && (atom_gettype(argv) == A_LONG) && (atom_gettype(argv+1) == A_SYM)) { long my_long; t_symbol *my_sym; char my_String[31]; my_long = atom_getlong(argv); my_sym = atom_getsym(argv+1); strncpy_zero(my_String, my_sym->s_name, sizeof(my_String)); }

At this point my_String should contain what you want.

Keep in mind that I coded it off the top of my head without testing. So please run the code and make sure it produces the expected result.

Cheers.

- Luigi

Hi Luigi,

thanks a lot. I haven't had time to try it yet, but I will let you know tomorrow if it worked.

Cheers,

Rainer

Hi again,

I am just trying your suggested code. However, there seems to be a problem with the 'strncpy_zero‘ function. I get the following error:

Implicit declaration of function 'strncpy_zero' is invalid in C99

OK, it works now. I forgot

#include "ext_strings.h"

Thanks a lot!

Cheers,

Rainer

Hi again,

I don’t know if I should open a new topic for this.

The resaon for wanting to receive a list including an int and a C string is that I want to open a data file for my external by using the function

path_opensysfile , for which I require a path ID and a file name.

My external works with lots of arrays which I save as data files. To load these files, I have been using the function open_dialog so far, but this means that I always have to click on the „Open File“ menu item of my object and select the file in the dialog window. To save time I would like to have the option of also letting my external automatically load a specific file when the patcher window (containing this external) is loaded and opened. I am trying to make loadbang send a list with the path ID and file name to the external and then use path_opensysfile to load the file.

This works on my MacPro (OS 10.6.8), but it doesn’t really work on my MacBook (OS 10.8.5). There is a strange behaviour which I can’t explain. If I launch my patcher and send the list with the path ID and filename to my external to load the file, I get an error. But if I first click on the „Open File“ menu item of my external, calling the open_dialog function, things are different. It dosen’t really matter if I then select a file in the dialog window or if I just press „Cancel“. If I then send the list including the path ID and filename to my external, it will load the file. Can you explain ths?

I find the Max6 API Reference quite confusing. I haven’t managed to find all the file handling functions in it. Are they still there? This documentation isn’t very clear, and there is no index including all terms.