[Bf-committers] Spe: Python IDE for Blender
Stani Michiels
bf-committers@blender.org
Fri, 30 May 2003 17:41:33 +0100
I just submitted this as a proposal... (Michel, you can look below)
As I couldn't get used to the spartanic text Window of Blender, I
developped Spe, a Python IDE which can run inside Blender. It includes
many features, such as an interactive shell with autocompletion and so
on, a locals browser and a Blender interactive object browser,
drag&drop, customizable menus and toolbar buttons, and much more...
Since it requires the full Python installation and wxPython, it is more
aimed at experienced Python programmers. It could make the step for
them easier to Blender. See screenshot for a quick impression.
This project is written in 100% Python (I even don't know C). So it
doesn't require a special built of Blender. (Just type:'import
spe;spe.main()' and press Alt-P). I developped it under Windows, but as
it uses wxPython it should be portable to Linux & Mac-OSX, to which I
don't have access at the moment. The program (at least for Windows) is
already quite stable, altough I wanted it tested by some other people
before it goes public.
->QUESTION1:
I have NO experience with CVS and would kindly appreciate any help on
this matter. It would be very great if somebody would assist me, as I'm
quite busy at the moment.
->QUESTION2:
Currently it's not possible to run Spe in a separate thread in such a
way that Blender is still accessible. When Spe is active, Blender stays
visible (doesn't become black) but doesn't accept any user input until
Spe is closed. Therefore I provided a 'remember' option so that next
time Spe is started, it automatically opens the files wich were last open.
Before I also made a package 'blenpy' which integrates existing Python
tools to be run from Blender with a nice GUI. Blenpy requires also the
full Python installation but not wxPython, altough it's recommended if
you want to have more tools. Blenpy makes it for example possible to run
the classic IDLE from within Blender, for which no wxPython is required.
I hope to bring Python and Blender a bit closer with this.
Thanks for any reaction,
Stani
Detailed information
Screenshot Spe: http://stani.host.sk/python/spe.png ()
Screenshots Blenpy: http://stani.host.sk/python/blenpy.html
Requires:
*FULL Python22 installation
*wxPython (http://www.wxpython.org/download.php)
Features:
Sidebar per file
*class/method browser (jump to source)
*automatic todo list, highlighting the most important ones (jump to
source)
*automatic alphabetic index of classes and methods (jump to source)
*notes
Tools:
*interactive shell
*locals browser (left click to open, right click to run)
*seperate session recording
*quick access to python files in folder and its subfolders (click to
open)
*unlimited recent file list (left click to open, right click to run)
*automatic todo list of all open files, highlighting the most
important ones (jump to
source)
*automatic alphabetic index of all open files (jump to source)
Python related:
*auto-indentation
*auto-completion
*calltips
Drag & Drop: drop any amount of files or folders...
*on main frame to open them
*on shell to run them
*on recent files to add them
*on browser to add folders
General
*context help defined everywhere
*add your own menus and toolbar buttons
*exit & remember:all open files will next time automatically be loaded
(handy for Blender sessions)
*wxPython gui, so should be cross-platform (Windows,Linux,Mac)
*scripts can be executed in different ways:run,run verbose & import
*after error jump to line in source code
last but not least...
Blender related:
*redraw the Blender screen on idle (no blackout)
*load script in Blender Text window
*Blender object tree browser (cameras,objects,lamps,...)
*add your favorite scripts to the menu
*100% Blender compatible:can run within Blender, so all these
features are available
within Blender
PS2 By the way...
I think Blender should be more present in the Python community. It's
strange that there was no announcement of the new Blender release in the
Python's mailing list
(http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=comp.lang.python.announce).
Some questions of Michel:
>You said it runs inside blender. I assume that you call the application
from Blender, and it starts in a seperate window?
Yes, but as I stated before I would like to make Blender and Spe run
parallel.
>Is it possible to build blender without (the link to) the new IDE? We
don't want to force the users to install WxPython when they don't want
to write scripts.
Of course, there is no other way.
>How portable is WxPython? I know it runs on Windows and no Linux.
Blender runs on 4 more platforms (OS-X, Irix, FreeBSD and Solaris).
See http://www.wxpython.org/download.php