Sub-Patcher Editing
As I get a little more sophisticated in my patching and begin to modularize a little better (thanks in part to the lessons learned from starting to use Jamoma), I have found the workflow to be a little inconsistent (and annoying) in editing sub-patches and hopefully there is a workaround I am not aware of.
Examples:
1.) When editing a patch that has an embedded patcher object, I have to take the parent patch out of edit mode double click the patcher object and edit it.
2.) When I want to edit an embedded bpatcher object I have to go into edit mode, right click the bpatcher object end select "edit original".
My real gripe is bouncing back and forth between edit and non-edit mode when all I am doing is editing. I know this seems like a minor issue but when doing a lot of dev, it becomes tiresome; am I missing an obvious way to access objects from edit mode?
As per 1)
On a mac, at least – in edit mode, hold command and doubleclick your subpatcher object.
As per 2) if it’s embedded, yes, you’ll have to right click and choose ‘new view of "none"‘ – if it’s not embedded, just keep a copy of the original open. When you save changes to that, it will be reflected in all instances of your bpatcher.
start using patcher-from-disk only and forget about [p ].
then you can open your (sub)patches and edit them via operating
system, extras menue, shell command, or even leave it open all
the time.
as you might know from bpatcher, a new version of a patch on disk
will be updated automatically in all instances asfter you saved it.
i usually use tabbed finder windows in OS9 (the most effective way)
or a custom dock folder in OSX to open my abstractions and subpatches.
-110
thx MuShoo and Roman, both suggestions will be a great help. Roman, I think your idea becomes a lot more feasible since I just started using a consistent naming conventions, so I can probably just use os x spotlight.
Any patch-in-a-patcher (external file or subpatch) can be opened using [pcontrol] too. I use this for any subpatch I want to edit a lot. It lets me hide the "p whatever" and use a message instead, which saves one click and saves switching from edit mode and back. Also you can tie a keystroke to open the [p] as well, which could be good for your end users too… though you probably want to choose keys that don’t have object-creation shortcuts, like c, m, i, f, etc.
Regarding the pros and cons of [p] versus patches on disk, there are several schools of thought, it seems. I like both ways, but if you’re planning to have a lot of the same patch-in-your-patch, you’ll probably want to go the disk route, at least eventually. That said, it’s more effort to switch back and forth (and open the master patch to edit), you have to make sure the file is with your main patch, and sometimes send/receive (or buffer~ names etc.) can get confusing when you have instances open as well as the main patch… "error: no buffer~ #1wave" etc.
So for development I keep things in subpatches, and if it seems smart at the end, I make a file and go that route. Once you save the file you can literally replace the "p whatever" with "whatever" and the file will load right in, preserving connections.
You can hold control on Windows (command on Mac) and double-click the [p] as well. Holding control will let you do *almost* everything you can do in locked mode while staying in edit mode.