toddwelti

What is the best way to see EXACTLY what is contained in a message? i'm finding it confusing. For example i have two cases where some text is generated and put into a message box, using right inlet, and look the same. But if i use "print @popup 1" i see that in one case there are single quotes (what i was tying to accomplish) and one case no quotes. However, you can't see the different in the message box.

Is there a good reference for symbols, whitespace, escape characters, etc?

What is the best way to see EXACTLY what is contained in a message?  i'm finding it confusing.  For example i have two cases where some text is generated and put into a message box, using right inlet, and look the same.  But if i use "print @popup 1"  i see  that in one case there are single quotes (what i was tying to accomplish) and one case no quotes.  However, you can't see the different in the message box.

Is there a good reference for symbols, whitespace, escape characters, etc?


debugging-messages

there's an object called printit that prints exactly what it receives, from cnmat:

but I don't think it's been updated for a while (may only work in 32-bit versions of max)

the message box is generally very misleading (it's not designed for diagnostics), so don't rely on it; print is somewhat better...

maybe you could put max in debug mode and see what is being sent to an object using the debug window?

there's an object called printit that prints exactly what it receives, from cnmat:
http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/patch/4024
but I don't think it's been updated for a while (may only work in 32-bit versions of max)
the message box is generally very misleading (it's not designed for diagnostics), so don't rely on it; print is somewhat better...
maybe you could put max in debug mode and see what is being sent to an object using the debug window?


I make extensive use of a simple abstraction comprised of [toggle], [gate] and [print] to select which parts of my patch are printed.

toggle --> gate0; input --> gate1 --> print

toggle --> gate0;   input --> gate1 --> print
(if that makes sense)


Could not get printit to work on my 64 bit pc

Oh yeah.. Windows. Well, if you can distinguish them with [print], use it. There may be more peace of mind knowing exactly what is getting passed around, but not all of the extra data is useful on the front end. Maybe this will help...

The quotes disappear in [message] B. Both boxes display mu - but the messages are not identical . [printit] reveals the following.

A: received MESSAGE "mu" (0x7fe064e40df0, s_thing 0x0) with 0 argument(s):

B: received MESSAGE "mu" (0x7fe064e40df0, s_thing 0x0) with 1 argument(s): SYMBOL "" (0x104ce3d70, s_thing 0x0)

So why make it confusing by auto-erasing the quotes? Because [message] - or any object that handles messages - interprets empty quotes as a 

In other words, 0 isn't nothing. If "a" is a, then "" is

It reminds me of the page at the beginning of some books that reads "This page was intentionally left blank". I suspect the publisher was poorly raised.

Oh yeah.. Windows.  Well, if you can distinguish them with [print], use it.    There may be more peace of mind knowing exactly what is getting passed around, but not all of the extra data is useful on the front end.    Maybe this will help...

In [message] A I type:  mu
In[ message] B I type:  mu ""  

The quotes disappear in [message] B.   Both boxes display mu - but the messages are not identical .   [printit] reveals the following.

A: received MESSAGE "mu" (0x7fe064e40df0, s_thing 0x0) with 0 argument(s):
B: received MESSAGE "mu" (0x7fe064e40df0, s_thing 0x0) with 1 argument(s):  SYMBOL "" (0x104ce3d70, s_thing 0x0)

So why make it confusing by auto-erasing the quotes?    Because [message] - or any object that handles messages - interprets empty quotes as a symbol of nothing, replacing them with

In other words, 0 isn't nothing.   If "a" is a,  then "" is

It reminds me of the page at the beginning of some books that reads  "This page was intentionally left blank".   I suspect the publisher was poorly raised.


debugging messages