[Bf-taskforce25] 2.5: how to help out right now

[Brecht Van Lommel]

Hi all,

While low level work is going for the UI and python API, we can still
use help, and there's still plenty of work to do in 2.5 right now! Just
reply here or come on #blendercoders on irc.freenode.net to get started.
The things listed here should be possible to tackle in pieces.

Note: operators will still work the same after the changes that are
being made, so no work is wasted.


Operator Descriptions
---------------------

For operators, a "description" field was added. This serves as a tooltip
and short description in the auto-generated API documentation. Almost
none of the current operators have it.

Choose a folder under source/blender/editors/. Look for _OT_ in the
code, and below ot->(id)name = "..."; add ot->description = "..."; with
a short one line description of what the operator does.

RNA
---

RNA is a wrapper around Blender's data structures, used by the UI code
to generate buttons, the python API, and the animation system. All data
that we want to display with the new 2.5 UI code needs to become RNA
wrapped.

Pick an item from "Help Wanted" on this page, and I can help get you
started:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BlenderDev/Blender2.5/RNATasks

Menus
-----

There is a new clean API for defining menu items in 2.5, to directly
call operators or add RNA properties in the menus. We may move defining
menus to python, but moving over menus to this system in C already will
make such work trivial, and already test operators and RNA properties to
work well for it.

In source/blender/editors/, choose a module and look in the *_header.c
file. uiDefIconTextBut is the old system, and uiMenuItem the new one. If
sufficient operators and RNA properties are already defined for the
corresponding tools, porting should be easy. Items not available yet can
be uncommented.

Operator Consistency
--------------------

Operators currently have inconsistent names and properties. Things like
(de)select all, hide/unhide, select linked, select inverse, mouse
select, .. are shared by many spaces, so they should also be consistent.
Further, naming and properties have small differences in style. It would
be useful for each of those types of operators to compare the different
versions and make them consistent.

Check this mail and replies to it for decisions on standards, which
should become used for all operators:
http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-taskforce25/2009-February/000328.html

More Operators
--------------

If you have some proficiency in the code, there are still tools that
need to become operators in 2.5. For example object/object_edit.c still
has plenty of code that is not operatorized yet. This requires quite
good understanding of the code though, we can't guide you through this
step by step.


Thanks,
Brecht