yes, now it makes more sense. that could be very sexy, as besides all the
interesting ideas, it would be possible to have a only-graphical version
of Pd running, for people who are only users.
it might not be very practical for cases where canvases have more than a
certain number of scalars (I have some with a couple thousands), but very
nice for other issues.
João
When you create an abstraction, you basically save a patch that is a
template for all instances of the abstraction which you will create later. [f
$1] gets filled in with the first arg, [symbol $2] with the second arg, and so on.With my idea, you create a scalar that has an associated canvas (similar
to an abstraction), and that canvas has access to the field values for that
scalar.Example: let's say you have [struct foo float y symbol blah canvas bar],
and have a subpatch [pd bar] that is a template for the field "bar" which is
just a canvas. So when you create a scalar foo, that scalar has a y variable--
which is a float; a blah variable-- which is a symbol; and a bar variable-- which
is a canvas. Imagine a hypothetical object inside that scalar's canvas called [getmy
y], and when you bang it you get the y value associated with _this_ scalar. Now
imagine this inside bar:[getmy y] | [mtof] | [osc~] | [catch~ bus]
Now if you instantiate 16 scalars, each one of them has an associated
oscillator that gets its pitch from that scalar's y value. In other words, each
scalar also has a canvas that holds within it the means to produce sound from the y
value that you see.I'm just assuming here that [getmy] would work like the outlet of
[struct]-- that is, it sends out a message when the y value for that scalar is updated. (Or
alternatively when it is banged.)Better yet, imagine using "foo" as the template for another struct as in
the following: [struct container float x float y array z foo]Now you can create/destroy voices in an oscbank using [setsize]! Of
course I'm skipping over lots of details, like you'd still have to rebuild the dsp
graph, and how loadbang would or woudn't work when you instantiate a scalar with a
canvas field, etc., etc.Hopefully some of that makes sense.
-Jonathan
João