» New Tokenizer Nodes
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New Tokenizer Nodes

Dear jugglers of the bytes,

sorry this took so long! Almost five years ago we introduced the new datatype Raw for easier handling of byte streams in vvvv. It came with all the nodes you'd need, except probably the most important one, a Tokenizer. So for collecting incoming bytes via e.g. TCP or RS232 and making sure to separate them into the correct message-tokens you'd still have to fall back to the good old Tokenizer (String). Possible, but annoying.

Enter the new series of Tokenizer nodes:

  • Tokenizer (Raw FixedLength)
  • Tokenizer (Raw LengthPrefix)
  • Tokenizer (Raw Postfix)
  • Tokenizer (Raw Frame)

Users of Tokenizer (String) may remember that it was always a bit tricky to configure since it had quite a few options to configure it and you'd have to make sure to get those all right for your specific use-case. So now we've separated those use-cases and spent each of them an individual node. The nodes versions should be self-explanatory. If not, they all come with help-patches!

Now all of the Tokenizers always return a spread of tokens found in the last frame. So in order to simulate the Queue Mode of the original Tokenizer (String) here is how you do:

  • Spread: take the spread as is
  • Discard: take the last slice of the spread
  • Enqueue: take the new Enqueue (Raw) node, which collects incoming spreads of raw and always only returns one of the collected slices per frame
Classic scenario tokenizing by CRLF as postfix. Easy.

Also, on the other side, if you're in the business of sending out a stream of bytes here are the counterpart nodes to frame your messages accordingly:

  • PrefixLength (Raw)
  • PostfixBytes (Raw)
  • FrameBytes (Raw)

What the VL?

Of course. All patched in VL and even more practical to use over there because (once again) datatypes and delegates. The Tokenizer in VL is much more primitive in that it only collects all incoming bytes and then executes a delegates on the buffered bytes. The delegate allows you to easily implement more complex scenarios than the four preconfigured ones mentioned above.

Elegantly tokenizing Firmata with VL

The Firmata protocol for example fits non of the above mentioned simple cases as it has different types of tokens. Still the basic Tokenizer can be used to implement the firmata peculiarities on top of it. Further the delegate allows you to return the tokens already in your desired datatype. So instead of returning a Spread<Spread<Bytes>> as the Tokenizers in vvvv can only do, in VL it can readily return a Spread<MyToken> which is just so much more modern..

If you feel anything missing here or have any questions, please let us know in the comments!

The nodes are now available in Alpha Builds.

joreg, Tuesday, Aug 22nd 2017 Digg | Tweet | Delicious 0 comments  
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Shoutbox

~4d ago

~7d ago

joreg: The Winter Season of vvvv workshops is now over but all recordings are still available for purchase: https://thenodeinstitute.org/ws23-vvvv-intermediates/

~14d ago

schlonzo: Love the new drag and drop functionality for links in latest previews!

~22d ago

joreg: Workshop on 29 02: Create Sequencers and Precise Clock Based Tools. Signup here: https://thenodeinstitute.org/courses/ws23-vvvv-08-create-sequencers-and-precise-clock-based-tools-in-vvvv-gamma/

~29d ago

joreg: Workshop on 22 02: Unlocking Shader Artistry: A Journey through ‘The Book of Shaders’ with FUSE. Signup here: https://thenodeinstitute.org/courses/ws23-vvvv-12-book-of-shaders/

~1mth ago

joreg: Talk and Workshop on February 15 & 16 in Frankfurt: https://visualprogramming.net/blog/vvvv-at-node-code-frankfurt/

~1mth ago

woei: @Joanie_AntiVJ: think so, looks doable

~1mth ago

xd_nitro: Anyone remember who increased projector brightness by removing some components that product the color?

~1mth ago

Joanie_AntiVJ: This looks super interesting (vectors over network) would anyone here know how to implement this in beta? https://github.com/madmappersoftware/Ponk