[Bf-committers] Bf-committers Digest, Vol 1040, Issue 1

[Brian Savery]

>
>
> Let’s not beat around the bush, no-one has
> ever complained about our OIIO, Boost, VDB or
> TBB versions. People get ..passionate..
> about python, anytime someone brings up the
> VFX Platform it's python, It's never anything
> else, it's python, the rest of the VFX platform
> may as well not exist. The issue is, and will
> always be python.
>
> The real question is, are we going to follow
> the platform in regards to python or not.
>

Ray I think hit the nail on the head here. And just to put a finer point on
it. The issue is not python scripts (those will always be forward
compatible) but python c extensions.

For example the RenderMan guys include a python binding of the RenderMan
API in their distro. This is compiled for a specific python version(s)
usually based one the VFX reference platform because they have to work in
Maya Houdini etc. Moving to a newer version of python breaks compatibility
for add-ons like this.

Usually for add-ons developers moving their build systems to a new version
of python to compile against causes significant pain which is why you hear
the complaints. I'm not saying this pain should hold blender back
nescessarily but just explaining it. And as an add-on developer who
supports multiple Softwares we don't see this python issue other places.

>
> --
brian.savery at gmail.com
508-274-8700