[Bf-committers] Future of the Python API : was EditMesh funcs must no longer be static

[Tom Musgrove]

[QUOTE] I have severe troubles with exposing editmesh to python.[QUOTE]

What we are doing right now is just allowing the retrieval of the 
perspective matrix, which has been added to the Window module.  Then doing 
everything else in python.  So thus far we aren't using edit mesh stuff.

The current method is blazing on 400 face and verts (a simple head or basic 
object), fast on 7000 faces and verts (make human), but something complex 
(such as Poser models- 60,000 vert 120,000 faces) it is too slow to be 
usable.

[QUOTE] The editmesh is highly critical code that needs to be fully reliable 
& stable, bothering about what's exported to third parties is not a  
requirement I like to see happening now.[/QUOTE]

The lack of any API is resulting in coders jumping through hoops to 
accomplish tasks that ought to be accessible from python.  A promise that 
the API won't change isn't really necessary.  We've had API changes that 
have caused breakage in the past, and if they were scripts that people were 
interested in, they got updated.  Just put a great big hairy warning 
regarding using the API, and make the list of exposed APIs fairly small.

This way, even if huge changes are made in the way things are done 
internally, updating the API to use the new C code will be a reasonable 
task.

As long as the API coders know that you plan to possibly make large changes 
that may neccessitate rewriting the wrappers, and as long as you make that 
clear to end user programmers, then exposing some of the functionality seems 
reasonable.

[QUOTE] So what's the focus of our Python API? It can't be replacing C 
coding... for that Blender wasn't designed at all.[/QUOTE]

Why shoudn't it largely replace C coding?  While it might make some tasks 
easier if Blender was 'designed for it', as far as python is concerned that 
isn't really relevant.  For your typical programmer, python is vastly more 
productive (due to expressivity, introspection capabilities, clarity of 
style, and interpretive language debugging methods), and for non programmers 
it is straight forward enough that artists can use it to create their own 
specialized tools.

LetterRip

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