How to handle change notifications for array Values?

General JUCE discussion
1

For Value objects that wrap variants holding primitive types, valueChanged() gets called for listeners when the value changes. E.g. if a Value wraps an integer and its value changes from 3 to 4 then valueChanged() of course is called accordingly.

However for Values that wrap var::VariantType_Array, valueChanged() is only called if the array object changes. This is because in VariantType_Array::equals() we have:

    auto* thisArray = toArray (data);
    auto* otherArray = otherType.toArray (otherData);
    return thisArray == otherArray ...

Here the array pointers are compared. So, if the contents or the array are changed, then valueChanged() is not called. (To me it seems more intuitive that Array::operator==() would get used for the comparison here, in which case we would get an elementwise comparison, and valueChanged() would be called for element changes.)

Options for solutions I can think of are:

  1. Always set array Values using a new var object and then check in valueChanged() if the array really changed or not (e.g. by storing a previousValue) [Ugly, inefficient]
  2. Write wrappers around ValueTree and Value that use Array::operator==() for array comparisons
  3. Implement a mechanism for notifying of array Value changes that exists outside of Value / ValueTree

Does anyone else view this as a problem and / or have ideas for solutions?