[Bf-python] API overhaul - irc meeting?

[Michael Reimpell]

> Our design principle here was to take a user centered approach.  What you 
see
> in the API should resemble what you seen on the screen and the mental models
> involved with that.

I know and I fear that this will be the principle for the new API as well. A 
"user centered approach" can never work. You have to make assumptions about 
what the user expects or would like to have or do with the API. At best such 
assumptions show your lack of imagination. (Sampling constrained action 
actuators for export?)

> Most scripters are artists, not C coders.  I would NEVER expect any
> user to look at source for C structs.  The UI is our reference here.
> And the BPy API doc, of course!  Also, C structs ofen have names like
> f1 and f1.

Again I like to point to the camera lens and light attenuation examples. The 
UI does not help at all. You can change the parameters and look how the 
result looks like, but you can't guess the formula from that. It would be 
nice, if the BPy API docs where a reference for that, but it's not the case 
and it is unlikely to change in the near future. Giving access to the C 
struct elements as attributes doesn't prevent you from providing powerful 
convenient methods in the API. This way you would address both: Programmers 
that need unrestricted access to Blender data without someone telling them 
what is good for them and occasional script writers, who can pick the 
convenient functions to do common high level operations.

Cheers,
Michael