But there really needs to be a way to address a single parameter programmatically (i.e. not by patching cables!)
That gets down to the whole nature of Usine - everything is patched (apart from the use of IML).
The wiring up thing is a blessing and a curse. Since everything is treated as a continuous signal, discrete messages (for example midi messages) have to be put on the wire and then blanked a bloc later to avoid multiple messages on the output. Doing that manually is a real pain. This could be addressed by having "message" wires as well as "signal" wires. I believe some other DAW has that.
The other thing is if you create a fairly complicated GUI with lots of visual components in Usine, they all have to be wired up which is quite a pain - especially doing scripting when the previous connections are lost if you add a new parameter in the middle. SDK user modules are better in that respect since the wiring is kept (presumably it is stored against parameter name rather than parameter number). In comparison doing such a GUI in Javascript is easy since its done programmatically without having to wire up everything.
The programmatic method in Usine of course is IML, but it is really an internal protocol. The global namespace and different internal parameter names, etc. mean that it is horrible to try to use, and often goes wrong. It should be replace by something better. But anyway, can IML be used to address a single parameter without patching cables ?
The advantage with the cables is that they define the interface between modules, which stops rogue modules from writing to random parameters and breaking the workspace. Perhaps the new HH3 multi-wire bus could be used in some way, to allow a single "multi-wire" input to a module without needing individual wires to be connected. You'd want the promise that using that bus inside a single patch would never add latency I suppose.
Another idea would be a system that allows messages to be sent between modules without any wiring. You could possibly use OSC for this (?) but its not really intended for that.
Simon.Statistics: Posted by sm_jamieson — 06 Jan 2017, 12:26
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