[Bf-committers] Blender 2.5 api proposal.

[Early Ehlinger]

>
> @Chris, Agree, Python should be wrapping a C API, custom functions in
> the PyAPI should be added with care - for functionality that's only
> relevant to the py api.
> To me it looks like RNA already does this well when it comes to accessing
> data.
> - Adding support for other languages is an advantage too, but Id
> rather leave that alone for now :)
>

Would it not be a good idea to take this a step further and make the Python
engine into a separate plug-in for Blender?  I'm thinking in terms of how
LightWave and 3dsmax have the notion of "Global" plug-ins that get loaded at
startup and stay resident for the lifetime of the application.  Scripting
engines are then just global plug-ins that call into the built-in C (C++ in
the case of Max) API's and expose as much functionality to the scripting
language as possible.

I see a lot of advantages to this in terms of adding other scripting
languages.

For Python, there's also the bonus that experimental changes to the Python
API could be released in binary form between official Blender releases.

Finally, there's a "ginormous" bonus in terms of "unexpected advances."
I.e., by having a global plug-in type and a sufficient C API for a scripting
engine, there are surely things that people will come up with that we would
never imagine otherwise.  I'd list examples, but I cannot imagine them :-)

I'd be willing to make a MS Script Engine plug-in on Windows to allow
VBScript and (MS) JavaScript.  Obviously this would only work under Windows,
so minus points on that, but it would help the fairly large population of
Windows users more easily automate things if they already know BASIC.

I've done this experimentally under LightWave, since their LScript language
leaves a lot to be desired, and it's not a huge effort given a good C API to
build on.

I would imagine that Mozilla's JavaScript implementation should be fairly
easy to implement as well.

-- Early Ehlinger, President, ResPower, Inc.
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