[Bf-webcontent] Python API Quick Start -- slow-slog issues

[Michael Turner]

Also, in the section "" of
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_67_1/info_quickstart.html

>>> group = bpy.data.groups.new("MyTestGroup")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'BlendData' object has no attribute 'groups


Regards,
Michael Turner
Executive Director
Project Persephone
1-25-33 Takadanobaba
Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 169-0075
Mobile: +81 (90) 5203-8682
turner at projectpersephone.org

Understand - http://www.projectpersephone.org/
Join - http://www.facebook.com/groups/ProjectPersephone/
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"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward
together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 2:11 PM Michael Turner
<michael.eugene.turner at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm new to Blender, and being more a programmer than a graphic
> designer, I decided to start with this:
>
> https://docs.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_67_1/info_quickstart.html
>
> and perhaps see if it can be improved. And sure enough: lots of room
> for improvement. I'd like to make these changes myself, but it's not
> obvious where I'd submit documentation patches.
>
> "Example Operator", which looked like five minutes of work, turned
> into an hour. I'm finally getting some output but I'm not 100% sure
> it's what's expected. Along the way, I learned the following:
>
> "Press Ctrl+Right twice to change to the Scripting layout"
>
> -- doesn't do anything visible. I looked around and finally noticed
> "Scripting" on the top menu bar. (But it looked dimmed out, so I
> didn't try it at first. See below.)
>
> "Click the button labeled New and the confirmation pop up in order to
> create a new text block"
>
> -- there is no button labeled "New" (only in a tooltip) and there is
> no confirmation pop-up.
>
> "Press Ctrl+V to paste the code into the text panel (the upper left frame)."
>
> -- the frame isn't necessarily in the upper left (I started with the
> 3D view there)
>
> "Move your mouse into the 3D view, press spacebar for the operator
> search menu, and type “Simple”."
>
> -- spacebar doesn't give me operator search. Moreover, I had to enable
> development options to get operator search
>
> "Note The output from the main function is sent to the terminal; in
> order to see this, be sure to use the terminal."
>
> That would have been nice to know at the beginning, or at step #2:
> "Start Blender" As it was, I kept wondering why output wasn't showing
> up in the Python command line pane. And that Note is separated from
> the instructions by this:
>
> "See also The class members with the bl_ prefix are documented in the
> API reference bpy.types.Operator."
>
> -- which is of no obvious relevance at this point in a Quick Start
> process. What a user wants to see in a Quick Start is some expected
> results. Quickly. To get started. (And by the way: is there no shorter
> starting example than this? How about "Hello, world"? It's
> traditional, after all.
>
> Finally: what would the expected output look like? When I finally
> figured out how to see output (note: on Windows 10, use the MS-DOS
> terminal, not PowerShell), I see lines like these
>
> <bpy_struct, Object("Cube") at 0x00000250207F9598>"
>
> My 3D View does have a light, a camera and a cube, so that matches.
> But just saying that the Quick Starter is looking at object IDs could
> be reassuring at that most nervous time in learning a new tool:
> getting started. (I've only worked with Python a little; maybe it
> would have been obvious otherwise.)
>
> So how would I contribute copy edits to this page?
>
> Regards,
> Michael Turner
> Executive Director
> Project Persephone
> 1-25-33 Takadanobaba
> Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 169-0075
> Mobile: +81 (90) 5203-8682
> turner at projectpersephone.org
>
> Understand - http://www.projectpersephone.org/
> Join - http://www.facebook.com/groups/ProjectPersephone/
> Donate - http://www.patreon.com/ProjectPersephone
> Volunteer - https://github.com/ProjectPersephone
>
> "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward
> together in the same direction." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry