... and this is close to the same spirit as the 'declare' idea:
Ah ok. I think that [meta] is a clearer distinction since we are talking about meta data for a patch, not necessarily data relating to just the canvas. I see it more as meta data to the patch, with #N canvas also being a kind of meta data for the patch, specifying the display size of the window and whether its visible or not. It doesn't entirely makes sense to me to have the #N canvas represent the patch.
.hc