The network text, written on save
Перевод английской документации от 15.09·English
The bridge can write the network out as text beside the .toe on every save. The project then gets a diffable history in git, and nobody has to remember to ask for one. It is off by default. One key in ~/.td-atlas/config.json turns it on:
{ "text_on_save": true }The file is <project>.network.json beside the .toe, in the same format td-atlas project text produces. The version number TouchDesigner adds on each save is stripped, so one project keeps one text and git holds the history. The write is atomic, a temporary in the same directory and then a rename. A file already at that name that is not one of ours is never overwritten. The bridge refuses and says so on its status panel.
Measured on 2025.32460, the text costs about 0.25–0.30 ms per operator, and networks are covered up to a cap of 2000 operators. Past that the save would grow by more than half a second, so the bridge writes nothing and again says so on the panel. "text_on_save_max_ops" raises the cap for anyone willing to wait.
The text covers the artist's own root components. TouchDesigner's /local and /perform, the bridge's own /tdatlas, and the external .tox roots /ui and /sys are left out, each by a measured rule the handler's comments give.
The text the bridge writes is printed from the live network. The one td-atlas project text prints is read from the expanded file, so the two are not byte-identical. Seven classes of difference are known and nothing else was left over. The measurement ran on 2025.32460 over a purpose-built network of 45 operators, 21 built by the fixture and the other 24 the annotation component's own subtree, and 104 of 722 compared fields differ.
| fields | class | why |
|---|---|---|
| fields 80 | class custom parameter placement | why
The file keeps a custom parameter's value in .parm beside the built-in ones and its definition in .cparm, which the reader does not parse — so the reader files the value under parms where the live side files it under custom_parms. Forty parameters, two fields each. |
| fields 10 | class custom parameter at its default | why
A custom parameter still at its default has no .parm line at all, so the file side has nothing to show; the live side prints every custom parameter. |
| fields 8 | class float text formatting | why
The file keeps TouchDesigner's own printing (2e+06), the live side prints 2000000. |
| fields 3 | class parameter at its default with a flags word | why
.parm carries a line for a default-valued parameter whose flags word is not zero; the live side drops anything isDefault. |
| fields 1 | class COMP input wiring | why
A COMP's operator input is stored in a .network file, which the offline reader does not parse, so the file-side text shows no inputs where the live-side text shows them. |
| fields 1 | class flag vocabulary | why
.n flags the live gather has no name for (showDocked). |
| fields 1 | class
the .tox save's own root parameter |
why
enableexternaltox is written into the root of a saved .tox and of no .toe — an artefact of how the measurement was taken, not of the text. |
A test re-measures those numbers. tests/live_network.py builds the network again and tests/test_live_text_diff.py fails if a field falls outside these seven classes. The test sits behind the live marker, so a plain pytest does not collect it at all. pytest -m live runs it, and needs an instance with the bridge.