Discussion

If you double-click on the object it opens up a text editor where you can enter or edit the qlist object's cue-list. Each line of the cue-list is a message ending in a semicolon. Lines do not need to be numbered or indexed (as with the coll object), but there are a few idiosyncrasies which need to be discussed here.

There are three different message formats for lines in a cue-list: lines which contain only numerical values (i.e an int, float or list), lines which begin with a symbol (i.e. message name and arguments), and lines beginning with a numerical value (or list of numerical values) and subsequently having a symbol (message name) with arguments. These three types of lines are treated differently by qlist. Lines containing only numerical values are sent out the qlist object's left outlet, and lines beginning with a symbol are sent remotely to a receive object named with that symbol. (Note that this is similar to remotely sending messages from a message box - contents before the first semicolon are sent out the outlet, and messages after each semicolon are sent remotely to named receive objects.) Lines which begin with a numerical value (or values) but have a message and arguments after the number(s), are treated as two separate lines - the first part (all numerical) is sent out the left outlet, and the second (message) part is remotely sent to a receive object.

When qlist receives a command (such as the next message) to output data, it will send all lines beginning with symbols to the corresponding receive objects, and stop after it has output the numerical contents of a line beginning with a number. The qlist object also has an internal timer which it uses for automatic sequencing. Sending a bang message to a qlist will cause it to play the entire contents of the cue-list. When a line begins with a number, qlist will use that number as a delay time in milliseconds before it continues outputting or sending the remaining cues.

The qlist objects saves its cue-list with the patcher.