Dynamic parameters best practices?

[Alloyed]

ok so, in practice, I can think of two common kinds of "dynamic parameter".

The first, more difficult situation is "completely arbitrary user-defined parameter". this would be something like a modular environment where the given patch defines what parameters there are and aren't. my guess is that this comment in the extension is the best way to handle this?

/// VI. Adding or removing parameters
/// - if the plugin is activated call clap_host->restart()
/// - once the plugin isn't active:
///   - apply the new state
///   - if a parameter is gone or is created with an id that may have been used before,
///     call clap_host_params.clear(host, param_id, CLAP_PARAM_CLEAR_ALL)
///   - call clap_host_params->rescan(CLAP_PARAM_RESCAN_ALL)

The second, more common be "this plugin has multiple modes, but this parameter only applies to some of the modes". we could do the add/remove song and dance for this, but it seems easier to use the CLAP_PARAM_IS_HIDDEN flag? at the cost of potentially having lots and lots of parameter ids. (a particularly complicated plugin could have hundreds, I reckon)

another option that I've seen used is to make N "Generic" parameters with a 0-1 range, and only change the parameter's name as its behavior changes. this would result in fewer parameter ids overall, and avoid restarting the plugin, but it results in worse separation of semantically different things.

does this all sound about right? and what happens if you use something like clap-wrapper to get AU/VST support? do any of these features transfer over?

[baconpaul]

I can tell you that rename params definitely works in the clap wrapper because I do it in short circuit

I’m pretty dubious that add remove param works all daws all formats. I would exercise caution using that, even in clap, alas