[Bf-python] module consts / dictionary consts

[Ken Hughes]

Willian Padovani Germano wrote:
> Hi Ken,
> 
> Constant dictionary is an old bpython type, coded before we came in, 
> that has some nice features, so we can probably stick to it, maybe 
> improve to support upper/lower/title cases.
> 
> It's used for sets of options we find in Blender itself.  For example, 
> Blender has N windows, we have a Window.Types const dict with them. 
> There are M types of lamps -> Blender.Lamp.Types.  In general, wherever 
> we have a parameter that is one of a fixed number of possible words, we 
> should use const dicts.

OK, got it.

> About module constants, there were already TRUE and FALSE, don't know if 
> back then Python didn't have True and False as keywords yet. Possibly 
> the coder just wanted to have the all uppercase option.  To follow a 
> rule, we'd change Blender.TRUE and Blender.FALSE to Blender.Bools.True, 
> etc. but argh I won't even comment about that ...

Well, we're starting to see other module constants as well, based on 
ascotan's wiki proposal (e.g., Blender.Text3d.MIDDLE={'name': 
'Text3d.MIDDLE', 'value': 1}).  That's where I was confused; does anyone 
envision making dictionaries of these? (e.g., Blender.Lamp.Types['Spot'] 
= {'name':Lamp.SPOT', 'value':2})

> We also have all the Draw events, a long list.  Better leave it as it is 
> or create a Draw.Events const dict?  That would look cleaner, but break 
> too many scripts, so probably better to break the rule for this one. 
> We're not even sure future changes in Blender events won't break things 
> anyway.

Agreed.

> For other cases, better discuss one by one here, when in doubt.  Hope 
> that helps.

Yeah, it does help.  Thanks.

Ken