# Convention for including patch instructions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Organelle\ **Created:** [October 17, 2018, 7:22am UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401 "2018-10-17T07:22:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![six\_wax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@six\_wax](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/six_wax)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 7:22am UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/1 "2018-10-17T07:22:11Z")
Ideally instructions for individual patches would be accessible on the actual Organelle display… But in lieu of that it’d be great to included them in the patch folders in a Readme or somesuch It’s frustrating and a definite buzzkill to have to go to fishing on a website (or through a comment thread!) for some sense of how to use a given patch ☹ ---
**Author:** ![thetechnobear](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/thetechnobear/32/42_2.png) [@thetechnobear](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/thetechnobear)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 9:05am UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/2 "2018-10-17T09:05:46Z")
the screen is way too small to include instructions on the screen. having the readme on the usb stick is not really much use, since you’d need to eject it from the drive, connect to the pc, open in pc, read it, then reinstall it on the organelle - way more hassle than just reading online 😉 @healthylives started a great initiative of listing all the patches with links, where you could find the instructions. > [@Overview of Organelle Patches Wiki](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/overview-of-organelle-patches-wiki/3120): > > 16 Step [[https://patchstorage.com/16-step/](https://patchstorage.com/16-step/)] Sequencer @Fuurther Step sequencer with 24 samples per step 4 track [[https://patchstorage.com/4track/](https://patchstorage.com/4track/)] Sampler @haesslich Record to one of four tracks; playback and manipulate Algo Break [[Algo Break](http://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/algo-break/2054)] Sampler / Generative / Drums shreeswifty Algorithmic BreakBeat machine with drum samples, a reverb, a filter and an ambient noise creator Almond [[Almond~ Vanilla Organ for Organelle~](http://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/almond-vanilla-organ-for-organelle/2567)] Synth shreeswifty Hammond in Vanilla w/ no externals ame… really all developers should keep their instructions of how to use the patch, readily accessible within the above link. only other idea I have is to perhaps make instructions available thru the organelle patch manager - but that’ll only work for those with wifi on their organelle. (but really I think everyone should have wifi anyway, its just so useful 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![six\_wax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@six\_wax](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/six_wax)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/3 "2018-10-17T14:07:50Z")
I hear you on the screen size, however: The patch menu scrolls… Couldn’t an instructions page within the patch also scroll? ---
**Author:** ![Wannop](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/wannop/32/328_2.png) [@Wannop](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/Wannop)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 4:24am UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/4 "2018-10-18T04:24:30Z")
How much more of a bummer will it be to navigate between the controls page and the instructions page as you learn though? These days almost everybody owns a portable Internet connected reading tablet (phone). The issue is the search, rather than the device. C&g already have compete instructions on their site for all their patches. Having a wiki for user patches will help, but is dependent on whether people making patches and being kind enough to share them also want to go to the extra lengths of writing comprehensive instructions. It’s sometimes necessary, but with others you just have to learn them - like when you pick up any new instrument. ---
**Author:** ![thetechnobear](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/thetechnobear/32/42_2.png) [@thetechnobear](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/thetechnobear)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 8:58am UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/5 "2018-10-18T08:58:30Z")
> [@six\_wax](#): > > I hear you on the screen size, however: The patch menu scrolls… Couldn’t an instructions page within the patch also scroll? unfortunately its not just the number of lines its also the width, its difficult enough getting parameters and values on it, let alone sentences 😉 i think you’d pretty much be limited to having one parameter very short description per page, which would be pretty tedious. > [@Wannop](#): > > but is dependent on whether people making patches and being kind enough to share them also want to go to the extra lengths of writing comprehensive instructions. yeah, thats the issue even if we formalised a format for tags, categories, descriptions etc - it would only really work if all patch developers comply - and there are quite a few Organelle patches don’t comply with current ‘conventions’ - so thats far from guaranteed. but thats cool, a strength of the organelle, - they are a bit ‘wild west’, a bit experimental/out there 🙂 I think the issues is often , when you get the organelle, it’s really tempting to load every patch you can find on patchstorage which becomes overwhelming - they all have their own quirks - so, it feels disorganised, lacking conventions, cohesiveness - hence the annoyance of lack of “instructions” **for me** , I found the best approach was to go get rid of everything, and just add what i really needed. (ok, i also have all the C&G patches installed - as my basic set, in case i just want to experiment) of course, doesn’t help the install exploration to decide which patches are ‘for you’, thats where the wiki comes in, apart from that, Id just start slowly one patch at a time. (oh, and im pretty brutal - if a patch has bugs, or a UI I don’t understand/enjoy - i just move on, unless its **really** special) (note: none of the above is a criticism of any particular patch, I fully acknowledge some of the above criticism / observation is true of my patches 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![six\_wax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@six\_wax](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/six_wax)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/6 "2018-10-18T16:26:18Z")
Yes, this has been my experience as well… Lots of awesome! --but sub optimal and often frustrating exploration. Even being able to browse ReadMes within the device from the System-level menu would be a win… Just so a user doesn’t have to leave the device. This wouldn’t even require developers to write the ReadMes: They could be user-edited abd crowd-sourced… Perhaps a simple script to scrape ReadMes from an online Wiki and archive in the USB drive folder, along with a simple bundled reader/browser on the Organelle? Not ideal UX, but my vision is simply to not have to leave the device to figure out WTF. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/chrisk/32/11_2.png) [@chrisk](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:02pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/7 "2018-10-18T19:02:26Z")
@six_wax I hear you, but it seems a bit unnecessary: what about a notebook where one writes down how to use the patch (in their own words)? A person can reference it as long there’s light to read by. No need for special scripts or WiFi. ---
**Author:** ![six\_wax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@six\_wax](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/six_wax)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/8 "2018-10-18T19:16:24Z")
I hear that this doesn’t interest you. Rather than sabotage a conversation about solutions, perhaps you’d like to disengage? ---
**Author:** ![six\_wax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@six\_wax](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/six_wax)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/9 "2018-10-18T19:25:06Z")
I mean, I can sort of solve this with notes on my phone or whatever (overlooking the fact that directions for many patches are sub-par to begin with…) –but I’m more interested to discuss a solution that benefits the whole community, and I’m also willing to help build it. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/chrisk/32/11_2.png) [@chrisk](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/10 "2018-10-18T19:56:57Z")
@six_wax Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![thetechnobear](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/forum.critterandguitari.com/thetechnobear/32/42_2.png) [@thetechnobear](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/u/thetechnobear)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 8:44pm UTC](https://forum.critterandguitari.com/t/convention-for-including-patch-instructions/3401/11 "2018-10-18T20:44:02Z")
> [@six\_wax](#): > > –but I’m more interested to discuss a solution that benefits the whole community, and I’m also willing to help build it. you could build a solution using the current OS version 🙂 sorry, I don’t have time to help build this at the moment, but I can give you some pointers on possibilities. so organelle can run 4 different types of patches pure data, supercollider, pyton or shell these require in the patch directory (respectively) main.pd, main.scd, main.py and run.sh probably supercollider/puredata aren’t the best to do this. but certainly it’d be feasible in python, or if you use a shell script you can write it in whatever you like (e.g C/C++) remember, the controls are sent to a ‘patch’ via OSC, and similarly this is how you can send text to the screen. you can find examples of python doing this in the system scripts here: [https://github.com/critterandguitari/Organelle\_UI/tree/master/host/root/scripts](https://github.com/critterandguitari/Organelle_UI/tree/master/host/root/scripts) you are also able to add ‘web services’ to the web server - if that’s you thing 🙂