HID object in plugdata?

[mortfell]

Would it be possible to add the HID object to plugdata?

For anyone who hasn't used it:
The HID object allows you to receive signals from game controllers (and lots of other stuff too)
A common use case is to convert the commands from the controller into midi messages and route them elsewhere...
but there is lots of other use cases as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB_oVny33wA&t=398s&ab_channel=cheetomoskeeto

Would be really fun to have in plugdata!

[porres]

Would it be possible to add the HID object to plugdata?

yes and no

• No because plugdata doesn't have externals of its own and tries hard not to add other libraries, specially abandoned ones (not sure exactly what is the state of hid, I'll guess it's abandoned)
• Yes because I can add it to "ELSE"
• No because I will not simply use 'hid' as it is and include it in ELSE.
• Yes because I can create a new object with the same functionality and include in ELSE

The thing is that this is not a big priority for me right now, but if there's enough request and people would like to contribute with me, I say let's do it :)

[dromer]

One issue might be that in a plugin context the host is responsible for passing input to the plugin.

So this might need some additional hacks to allow for bypassing the plugin host to connect to such devices, which means it could get ugly very fast.

[mortfell]

Thanks for your response! That definitely makes sense.

IMO it's worth a certain degree of special consideration because it adds a fairly substantial class of new functionality to puredata (ie receiving control data from a wide array of peripheral devices which otherwise would not be able to send any musically useful information)

I also understand that while cool, it might not actually be something that a lot of people would use.
Judging by the fact no one has requested it yet this is probably the case.
But perhaps the original object just isn't something many people know exists.

I would certainly contribute by way of bug reporting and testing but I'm afraid thats where my abilities end.