disconnected patcher

[HitemTrue]

Hello,

Somehow I managed to create a duplicate patcher object...I did not know I was in a duplicate. After making several changes and then attempting to use it, it was unresponsive. Then I noticed that the inputs and outputs looked different...they had the letter "i", instead of a "1" and "2". I saved the file, to close it and see if restarting would help. Lo and behold, there was another window behind it, containing the patcher object as it was before I started making all my changes. And it was functioning and responsive.

So what exactly creates the link with parent patch? Is there a way to have another version of the sub-patch, and switch it out? I had to copy all the elements from my "dead" patcher object, and paste into the "living" object and do some reconnecting.

Certainly there is a better way to handle different versions of a subpatch. I've looked through the Max docs on patcher and encapsulation, and can't find the solution.

Thank you.

[doubleUG]

perhaps "Max Tutorial 15: Abstractions" give you an hint

[HitemTrue]

perhaps "Max Tutorial 15: Abstractions" give you an hint

By Robin Parmer? He's got one called "Max Tutorial #1 Abstractions", and he talks about using bpatcher object instead of patcher, because it allows for a file name to be passed in.

Thank you...I'll be giving that a try the next time I work on upgrading that patch.