FWIW, the latest pd-l2ork release has a “-unique” flag (disabled by default) so whenever you open a new file by double-clicking inside a file browser, it will open it inside an existing instance (if any) or spawn a new instance (if none). Spawning instances with –unique flag will force creation of a new instance.

From: pd-list-bounces@iem.at [mailto:pd-list-bounces@iem.at] On Behalf Of Marco Donnarumma
Sent: Sunday, September 22, 2013 7:14 AM
To: pd-list@iem.at
Subject: Re: [PD] prevent opening of patches

That's useful, but up until recently you had to create a second instance of Pd from the command line anyway, since OSX would show you the instance you already had if you tried to open it from the operating system.

Or...have I missed the point? My friend and collaborator always needs two Pd's, one for Gemnotes and one for audio processing, to play my musioc...and we wrote a BASH script to launch the gemnotes one after the audio one was set up.

well, personally most times, when developing, I need to create abstractions and use global variables just to experiment with stuff. And if two instances of Pd are opened when you don't want it, it can be very annoying.

Even worst scenario when you are teaching, student might open 4 patches at a time, and as 4 Pd instances are launched, and it's a mess.

I always wondered whether we could have a flag in Pd GUI that set this kind of configuration. Like, "always open a new Pd instance", "always use one Pd only"... something like that. imho it would be useful.

cheers,
M