[Bf-python] NLA addition needs thoughts

[Roland Hess]

Right now, the NLA API for stride bone uses the GUI convention of  
dealing with strings. In the NLA n-key panel, you type the name of  
the bone you want in the StrideBone field, and Blender links it up  
for you behind the scenes. The PyAPI seems to have been written to  
mirror the user's GUI experience.

I was adding get/setters for group targets in NLA strips (used to  
target specific armatures with dupligroups with NLA, and are  
essential for animating instanced groups seperately), and my original  
code had used the same methodology: strings, like the GUI. It was  
pointed out on irc that perhaps just passing and retrieving the  
actual object it was linking to instead of its name would make more  
sense.

My thought is that where possible, the PyAPI should mirror the user  
experience, unless the user experience is hacky. In an ideal  
application, the user would be able to set the stride bone via a drop- 
down menu with all valid bone possibilities, and to set the  
groupTarget via a drop-down with available, valid armatures.

Maybe we should go back and change the StrideBone API to accept and  
return bone objects, as opposed to strings, and I'll make the  
groupTarget API follow suite. (If you're worried about backwards  
compatibility with the StrideBone API, I'm willing to bet cash that  
the number of users getting and setting stride bone in python right  
now == 0).

Thoughts?

Roland Hess
harkyman


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