bpatcher and thispatcher (feature request?)

Is there any way to talk to a parent patch from a [thispatcher] contained in a [bpatcher]?

I noticed that in the helpfile for the [thispatcher] it states: “See the bpatcher help file for the use of the thispatcher object with bpatchers”, but I cannot find what this sentence is referring to :( I was hoping for a bit more insight and some unknown tricks…

If this is not possible, then this would be a highly desired feature request. You could implement something like, first of all, an object very similar like [thispatcher], called [parentpatcher], which would also do an internal automatic check, if the current patch is a subpatch in the first place. I know this is possible in javascript, *but* the problem is that not everything that you can do with a thispatcher can be done in javascript, like setting the dirty bit. Oddly enough, checking the state of the dirty bit is, in turn, only possible in javascript and not through the [thispatcher]. Inconsistencies like these (not supplying a getter for each setter function and vice versa) annoy me about Max a bit, to be honest.

Also, I could think of something like sending a message such as “script send parent dirty” to a [thispatcher] sending whatever you would have sent to a normal [thispatcher] in the parent, which is only virtual though, as in, the user does not need to create an actual [thispatcher] in the parent patch. Although, I find the first idea more elegant.

Also, thispatcher should be able to report changes made to the attributes of the patch. This could be done automatic or manual polling perhaps. Again, thinking about bpatchers and GUIs, such a feature would benefit many, I believe. The [thispatcher] outputs a nicely structured hierarchy when getting the window states, but the idea has not been followed through. Again, Im a bit annoyed that not everything I can set through [thispatcher] I can also get!

Hope these ideas will be consered. Thanks