[Bf-python] Checking where we are

[Willian Padovani Germano]

Hi,

Ok, it was a long winter down here and I haven't been helping enough 
with bpython and scripts, but I hope to be able to work more from now on.

It'd be worthwhile to discuss a little how the overhaul is going and 
plan what we can and should do before the official 2.40. I've just read 
the development notes in the wiki:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BlenderDev/BpyApiDiscussion

Probably we won't be able to define and perform all changes now. That 
forces us to keep compatibility for 2.40, which is actually a good idea, 
you all know. It's much better to break things at the beginning of 
development, giving time for script authors to adapt, suggest other 
changes, etc.

New functionality (specially new getsetters, of course) is ok imo, even 
if the API changes later, but current scripts should work with 2.40 
where possible. The changes in Mathutils were made before 2.40-alpha 1, 
so people got 2 pre releases to get to know them, that's enough. 
Armature/bones just has/had to be rewritten and will surely benefit from 
that.

Getting to know what each one is working on right now and how busy we 
are (*) is also a good idea. I have the pydrivers to finish, then some 
bugs to try to fix and I'll also test scripts. I'll also try to help 
with the new API, of course, but I don't have that much free time yet.

(*) comments on irc suggest Joe Gilbert is having a busy month, congrats 
pal :).

I suggest we actually write the proposed API in the wiki, one module per 
page (except for those that probably won't change, like BGL, maybe 
Draw). Just the module constants, functions and objects (with their 
attributes and methods). With that in our hands we can mark somehow the 
proposed changes. This will give us all a clear picture. A simple Python 
script could retrieve this info in its current state from our epydoc .py 
source files...

So what do you all say? In short: we need to coordinate a little to know 
where we are and we need to define goals for 2.40 and the actual 
revamped API, hopefully at the beginning of 2.41.

PS: great to see JMS contributing C code to the API, be welcome :).

--
Willian