[Bf-taskforce25] Templates

[William Reynish]

Hi All,

Trying to get an overview of the types of layouts that'll be useful  
for 2.5, I've started mocking up some more layouts, and playing with  
the layout engine. One of the big things missing is the templates  
which will take care of some of the more intricate controls that  
aren't simply RNA switches.

Here I've attempted to map out Mesh, Curve and Armature ObData panels:

http://www.reynish.com/files/blender25/meshproperties.png
http://www.reynish.com/files/blender25/curveproperties.png
http://www.reynish.com/files/blender25/armatureproperties.png

(As an aside I realize there are one or two controls missing from  
these layouts, and that curve will have to change a lot to reflect  
current curve vs. entire curve)

Doing these mockups, what I've found is that the amount of different  
types of templates needed is actually very low. We need:

Datablock controller (at the top, for renaming and managing the  
datablock)
Preview item (material, texture, world, lamp)
Object/box template (modifiers, constraints, bones, object groups...)
List template (vertex groups, material groups, texture layers, shapes,  
vertex colors, bone groups, pose library...)

As far as I can tell, this covers everything we need in terms of these  
templates. Now, I realize there is probably still lots of custom c- 
code for each single template, but knowing there are only four kinds,  
perhaps a more efficient code-sharing structure can be explored?

The List template can nicely be used for almost everything that has  
data in a list, and gives a nicer overview of the data than 2.4x: http://wiki.blender.org/uploads/0/0a/Dev_wcamp_properties_08.png

I'm mainly targeting Brecht I suppose, seeing as he's setting up these  
templates. Perhaps less time can be wasted making lots of custom  
templates by just implementing these four types and then simply  
hooking them up to the correct data? Or is this wishful thinking ? ;)

Cheers,

-William

PS (unrelated)
We've talked about putting User Preferences in its own window for 2.5.  
This solves a few issues with trying to pull down the top bar when  
there are too many window subdivisions, and makes them much easier to  
find.

I'm guessing it can use the same layout engine as properties editor?

Anyway, here's a fun mockup: http://www.reynish.com/files/blender25/userpreferences.png


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