Auto Index patch

A green Patch : When it is created it count how many instances of himself exist in the composition (or in a host that run compositions) and then it product a new index +1.

smokris's picture
Re: Auto Index patch

Interesting... Could you provide a couple example use cases for this patch, so I can try to better wrap my head around it?

yanomano's picture
Re: Auto Index patch

With Clips : EX1: You have a "Slider Clip" that generate an on Screen Slider. Inside this Clip there is : - An Auto Index patch. - A Spooky Sender that broadcast the value of the slider. Each time you create a new instance of the the "slider Clip" in the composition, The spooky inside take a new index. Eventually the new slider is positioned under the first one...etc...

EX2: When working with fake iterators (Like Alex do often) : You have a fake "Iterator Clip" that you drag in your composition. If there is an Auto index patch inside it will create a new index for the iterator.

Of course you can set index yourself, but let's talk about another case.

EX3:

A "QC composition plugin" is running inside a host : When you have created it (the first instance) the Auto index patch gived him index 0. Index 0 = "Master"= Ability to broadcast datas (with Spooky sender)

Now Each time you will create news instances of the "composition plugin" they will know that they are >0 so they are "Slave".

If you have added a functionnality that provide "slaves" the ability to receive datas ( with spooky receive ) from the "Master" they will set up automatically to do it.

Eventually the Auto index patch will have an input port so you can give it a special name or number (so it can search for just brothers of himself...)

cwright's picture
Re: Auto Index patch (spooky)

These all hinge on the Spooky Send/Receive patches... I'm not sure I'm a fan of these use cases.

Ex1 is perhaps necessary because red macros can't provide outputs, but breaking that design is asking for problems. (it works, but it's non-obvious, and is most definitely a hack.)

Ex3 doesn't scale if you want to count more than 1 type of thing (so, if you wanted 2 masters for different things, this wouldn't help).

Ex2 seems ok -- unless the ordering gets changed (via save/load, or more likely copy/paste). Then everything gets messed up in a non-obvious way, with no good way to fix it (other than erasing everything, and starting over).

There's perhaps potential to this idea, but these cases aren't it, and it's not fully baked yet. Keep thinking about it.

yanomano's picture
Re: Auto Index patch (spooky)

EX3 : You have to provide a String input port to the Auto Index Patch. So you can give it a name. Then he will watch just for his brothers...

In my mind "Auto index" is a new patch with an output port (index) not a new functionality for the spooky one.

cwright's picture
Re: Auto Index patch (spooky)

yanomano wrote:
EX3 : You have to provide a String input port to the Auto Index Patch. So you can give it a name. Then he will watch just for his brothers...

If you have to manually name, then this is only useful with clips + spooky (because otherwise, you could just type a number manually; typing a name isn't any faster) It does cut down a bit on bookkeeping, but I worry that a plugin might not be the right place for this.

Quote:
In my mind "Auto index" is a new patch with an output port (index) not a new functionality for the spooky one.

Yeah, I know it's a separate patch -- but all the usage you mention requires the spooky patch to be useful...