[Dev] 'get' revisited

[jb at integralive.org]

>
> I would suggest that we don't allow for OSC messages with zero arguments -
> zero arguments always means 'get the value'. If this doesn't make sense
> for a given address, the zero argument call returns a NULL value.
>

I was actually thinking the opposite, i.e. conceptually sending a message
to an address, without providing any arguments always results in a method
call. Obviously the actual implementation can't be determined (and doesn't
actually matter), but from the namespace point of view, could we think of
messages as follows:

/x 5     ->     x(5)

This calls the procedure that corresponds to the OSC address /x, passing
it the argument 5. The functionality of the procedure is defined in the
module definition. It could be to store the value '5', or to perform some
additional operation, e.g. a calculation depending on the module.

/x      ->      x()

This calls the procedure that corresponds to the OSC address /x, passing
it no arguments. In this particular case it outputs a stored value using
the Integra OSC output address syntax  i.e. '/x: 5'

I think this conceptual model corresponds more closely to what any given
implementation will do, i.e. even to just return a stored value, a module
will need to do at least two things: retrieve the value, and output it as
an OSC message.


Jamie