[Bf-committers] handling large lists in Blender (vertex groups, shape keys, materials)

[Gaia]

Hi;

I have been looking around into some other 3D applications
and i found some interesting concepts to handle large
property lists like we can find for example in

- vertex groups
- shape keys
- materials

I experienced that these lists can grow quickly and sometimes
it becomes a challenge to find particular entries in them.

I think that the following 3 concepts could be very useful
improvements for the above mentioned lists:

* Filtering
    is an efficient way to reduce the amount of visible elements.
    Pseudo grouping could be done as long as you use organized
    element names, like:

    head_cheeks
    head_eyes
    head_mouth
    head_lips
    ...

    We already have filtering at various places. Why not add
    it also to the above mentioned lists ?


* Hierarchical grouping
    is an efficient way to define what belongs together, like
    - head
        - cheeks
        - eyes
        - mouth
        - lips
    - ...

    We already have hierarchical grouping in the Outliner.
    Maybe the above mentioned lists could benefit from
    a similar grouping. I believe that a 2 level hierarchy
    would be already very helpful.


* Resizable list area
    so that the user can self decide how many rows of the list
    shall be visible.

    We have no resizable list areas, only resizable window areas.


Would it be a big effort to add such improvements to Blender ?
If it is appreciated, wanted and easy to implement, then i offer
to put some time and effort into this.

Thanks for reading.

cheers,
Gaia