[Bf-funboard] Scheduling

[Ton Roosendaal]

Hi,

The worst part of recoding is over... it was an incredible amount of  
work to separate all buttons code and make them minimal depending on  
all kinds of vague global settings.
Plus I had to code a new UI framework for it, a generic system to allow  
building expandable (python, plugins) and configurable interfaces. Took  
me 2 weeks of 14h/day work...

The status as it is now is still the rough sketch for 2.3x, I've made  
sure to have it automatically converted (when reading old files) to a  
situation that's still recognizable.

So, yes, it's time to ask a couple of coders to have daily binaries for  
download available. Review and further design is much easier when you  
can play with it yourself.
I'll ask some coders for it, and post links when I have it.

Further, we shouldn't think the '2.3' design is supposed to be ready in  
2.30. The amount of work still is huge, so we have tackle things one at  
a time. Apart from designers, we also need people to do the coding  
work, and reorganizing buttons isn't very popular work...  
coder/volunteers for that can apply to me of course.

People also shouldn't forget we are working on a 2.3 book. This is  
scheduled to be out end of this year, and provide the *very* essential  
extra income for the Foundation. Working on the code itself has proven  
to be a disappointing extra amount of work... so for a 2.3 'manual'  
edition I have to make choices what will be in there and what not.

I'll do that in close cooperation with Matt and Stefano (S68, chief  
manual editor). The ultimate deadline for this is in a couple of  
weeks... and it will mainly define how the first 2.3 will look like and  
work. But even when the book will be about that release, it won't (and  
shouldn't) stop us from further work and changes in the UI.
Any manual is outdated the day it's printed! :)

Further it's very hard to make a real schedule... what most likely will  
be after 2.30 is:
- the context sensitive toolbox (although I'll try!)

What is definitely after 2.30:
- rewording / cleaning up names in Blender
- a full revision of positions of all buttons and/or panels
- icon restyling
- more (or different) choices for button and panel drawing styles
- configurable toolbars or window headers (yes, a lot of former  
icon-button options now only reside in pulldown)

What will make it (but not coded yet):
- basic themes/colors choices
- further refining of drawing styles of panels (and default 'theme')
- pulldowns in all windows
- what's within the scope of workforce; some essential enhancements in  
button layout

And most important: Blender has to work stable & reliable. We have more  
coding projects that need to be integrated, like a very cool knife  
cutting tool and Mesh undo.

So; please relax! No reason to hurry, no reason to swamp this maillist  
now... and especially don't start a new enormous thread to discuss this  
mail! :)

Thanks all,

-Ton-




On Thursday, Oct 16, 2003, at 15:13 Europe/Amsterdam, Matt Ebb wrote:

>> So if there were regular (e.g. daily) compiles for Windows, etc, then  
>> the
>> non-programmers could comment on the GUI better.
>
> Comments aren't that useful at this stage since the code/functuality  
> is in
> massive fluctuation, there are plenty of bugs, and lots of unfinished  
> stuff.
> Comments on this would not be very useful, and most likely people  
> would be
> complaining about things that are already known and being worked on,  
> bugs
> that still haven't been ironed out, etc. Going through this sort of  
> feedback
> would be a massive waste of time which is in *very* short supply, and  
> needs
> to be spent *actually doing the work*. When it's in more of a state  
> that's
> ready for wider user testing and feedback, it will defintely be made
> available.
>
> Matt
>
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>
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org