Pack without pack!

Peter McCulloch's icon
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I just saw this in a student's work. Didn't realize you could do it this way. Definitely easier to explain than messagebox with $1...

Roman Thilenius's icon

let me guess, zl union? or prepend/append? :) there is a third way, just cant recall it offhand now.

Peter Ostry's icon

An object that starts with a number is a [pack]
Try to open the Help.

I wouldn't do it this way. Not clear what it is and you cannot write [s 0 0] for example.

mudang's icon

Another not-so-obvious thing about lists:

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For some objects, they get distributed among inlets.

Peter McCulloch's icon

Except for an object that is just a number, which is an int/float. I am used to this behavior and was surprised that adding an argument changed it to a pack!

MIB's icon

neat... didn't know that one either

Christopher Dobrian's icon
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As you probably know, int, float, and list are all (normally hidden) message selectors that are assumed whenever Max encounters a message that consists of (respectively) a single int, a single float, or a multi-item message that starts with a number. Similarly, typing a single int, a single float, or any multi-item list that starts with a number directly into an object box assumes an object of type int (or i), float (or f), or list (or pack). Viewed that way, it maybe makes more sense (although these shortcut conventions are not used that commonly in the tutorials or help files).

Roman Thilenius's icon

i usually use [list] — which also is nothing but a [pack] — because without
a descriptive object name a [0 0 0 0] is not very good readable.

broc's icon

Using [list] instead of [pack] would make sense if there was also [unlist] instead of [unpack].

Rick's icon

How about [unjoin] for your [unlist] ?