[PD] Simultaneous Computation

[Hannes Gräuler]

Hi all,

I'm new to Pd and I'm looking for some hints on implementing a DSP external.
I want to implement an external which is capable of simultaneous calculation
of 2 or more coupled instances of it.

On the signal level, this is not possible, because the construction of the DSP
tree forbids feedback loops.

Another way to achieve simultaneous computation of coupled objects is the
following: The coupled objects exchange their adresses via pointer messages.
Now, when the signal of the first of the coupled objects is about to be
computed it should also calculate all coupled objects and store each result
in a buffer. When the DSP-perform on of the remaining objects is called,
it simply copies the buffer its outlet.

1. While the above proposal feels like a hack to me, I'd like to ask if there
    is any other (smarter) way to enable simultaneous computations?

2. Given my proposal is worth to be tried, how would I get to know the "first
    of the coupled objects"? Is there a way to get the timestamp of the current
    DSP iteration, so that I can determine when to calculate all buffers?

Thanks for reading,

Hannes