Hi all,

is there any way (with the new [array] objects, old ones or some pd trickery) to get a message of some kind immediately after an array has been updated in any way, including with the mouse? What I'm after is something like the right outlet of [text define]. I've searched around but the only solution yet seems to involve some fast metros, which is not practical.

Does anyone have any ideas?

thanks in advance for your thoughts.

@weightless Pd will send "ping" when the array is updated......... by mouse or message.
It does the same for number boxes as well, but at a slower rate...... and maybe for other mouse updates.
Might be useful using [receive pd] and [route ping]
David.

@whale-av Thank you David, this will do the trick nicely. I was hoping there was a hidden feature for this but apparently not (yet?).

If you use custom data-structures, you can get an update every time an element is updated. But it's a lot of work and might not be suitable, ie. if you're using the array at audio rate.

@LiamG Thanks for the suggestion. I was trying a method for state saving arrays by dumping their contents whenever they change. For this reason having a metro going super fast in each abstraction is way overkill, so perhaps the ping method is a good compromise, or a might even dump the arrays before the patch is closed.

I was just curious if there was a way to do it like [text define] can with the right outlet.

@weightless You can put xy behind the array to get mouse events. There is a little bug in the current version if you click in the bottom left corner, which can be resolved, but i haven't found the motivation yet.

@weightless, if it's state-saving you're after, then you could consider using [iemguts/savebangs]. The right outlet bangs whenever you click save but before the patch is actually saved, so you can update whatever data you need. Of course, this won't work if you need to keep it Vanilla.

@ingox Thanks for the suggestion, that is a great patch but in this case I need something more universal that works for all sorts of arrays.

@LiamG This sounds like the best way to do what I'm after right now, and yes externals are fine.

Thanks for all your suggestions.