[Bf-python] short term goals

[Stephen Swaney]

On Fri, Jul 15, 2005 at 01:40:07AM -0300, Willian Padovani Germano wrote:
> Hi Ken,
> 
> I guess we should discuss better something like this, since it's 
> bigger.  I like the newer getset method, too, btw.  There are other 
> things we can do to improve the API, like more standardization and maybe 
> replacing string args for constant dicts.  It would be better to discuss 
> among us and come up with a plan to, if possible, change things at once, 
> also consulting BPython users at our mailing lists and forums, which 
> takes time.
> 
> Blender Python has a history of rewrites, bugs and inconsistencies since 
> it was introduced long before we came in, the community was quite tired 
> of API changes.  Besides, there are many scripts out there and bundled 
> with Blender.  It'll be good to integrate a general API overhaul with 
> new facilities for scripts, like a general repository -- where we can 
> include only those updated to follow very basic guidelines 
> (cross-platform, good GUI, bug free, etc.).

Changing attribute access to use the tp_getset style is something we
can do without affecting either the users or the API.  I would like to
see new work use this style exclusively and let the old
x.getStuff()/x.setStuff() style fade away.

As Willian points out, the API has gone thru some changes changes over
time.  Some of this has been due to differing implementations, some of
it has been cleanup.  Because of 'user fatigue', I am a little
uncomfortable with the idea of removing or deprecating existing
features that still work.  In some cases, such as deprecating the
X.get() methods in favor of uniform X.Get(), we needed to do it to
provide consistency.  

We have been careful about what went in to the API and making sure we
had as much backward compatibility as possible.  I think the users
have an expectation that once something is written, it will be around
for a while.

-- 
Stephen Swaney			
sswaney at centurytel.net