[Bf-python] Const dict arguments (was: short term goals)

[Ken Hughes]

Willian Padovani Germano wrote:

> Stephen and I discussed a little during yesterday's meeting.  It is a 
> good time to consider an overhaul, making the API more consistent and 
> clean, based on things we've learned and feedback from users.  A wiki 
> page and a forum thread will be used to collect suggestions so we can 
> get a clear picture of all needed changes.  Specifically about 
> getsetters, Stephen suggested that it could be done already, but for now 
> we'd also keep the old get/setStuff().  There are a few issues like 
> defining strict practices for arguments and return values, but these can 
> be solved later w/o much work, if you'd like to start soon on this.
> 
> For example, there's a mix of const dicts (ex: Window.Types, etc.) and 
> strings (ex: camera.type) being passed as arguments.  It'd be nice to 
> stick to just one alternative and we favor const dicts (open for 
> discussion, of course).

I agree with the const dicts, but I foresee a problem with backward 
compatibility for getters.  We can make x.setStuff() accept the old
and new argument types, but what type should x.getStuff() return
(same applies to "val = x.stuff")?  Should we leave well enough alone?
Should there be an attribute x.paramType which the user can set to
use const dicts instead?

I'll ignore this issue for now unless there's a general consensus on
what to do, and just concentrate on the tp_getset change itself.


Ken