[PD] Reasoning behind PD opening multiple copies of the same patch

[Frank Barknecht]

Hi Joe,

On Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 07:08:30PM +0000, Joe White wrote:
> Well, IMHO I guess making pd only open one instance at a time would be
> default behaviour. If a user wished to open more abstractions then they
> could use the 'many' library. It seems like both ways would be handled then.
> 
> I still don't know why multiple instances of a patch would be useful, or how
> it would differ to having multiple abstractions within a patch. Abstractions
> seem to be handled better when it comes to editing, saving an edited
> abstraction closes all other duplicate windows and re-instantiates them.
> Whereas sometimes I've run in problems editing a duplicate of a patch by
> accident and lost work because of problems with saving both patches etc...

Yeah, it's a bit strange, but actually not that uncommon outside of Pd as well.
For example the text editor I'm using (gvim) allows you to edit the same file
twice. Or you could use a different editor to edit the same file. When I save
one copy, Vim detects the changed file, but it doesn't automatically load the
new one into the second window: Instead is asks me if I would like to load the
new one or ignore it. I like this behaviour because I may have different edits
going on in the second edit session, although it may have started from the same
original file, and I may want to save these changes as well later on, probably
under a different name.

What I'm trying to say is: Pd and Vim and many other programs may allow
shooting yourself more easily than typical Apple software, but OTOH they allow
various different "lifestyles".

Or put differently: If you don't like to have two copies of the same patch
open, then don't open two copies of the same patch. :)

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht            Do You RjDj.me?          _ ______footils.org__