uhhh, why not use bones??? they seem to be just fine to me…and intuitive if you can use the envelopes…I would not see it as “lazy” coding, but intelligent use of pre-existing code. OTOH, if a new object type is introduced, it should have MORE functionality, otherwise…what is the point?..just my opinion.
Using bones mean that you can pose those basic shape so obviously using bones, whatever visual display you want them to use, is indeed a good idea.
bones works for me.
Its already in there.
bones or not, the final solution should be well integrated with sculpt mode. You want to be able to build and pose your zspheres fast without having to switch between editors, or go into different panels and adjust settings etc…
Bones are for rigging, not creating meshes.
When designing a program It’s best not to confuse people.
You know - “KISS” (keep it simple stupid)
As Simple, Clean, Intuitive as possible to be more exact…
The way I imagined it:
These new objects should be displayed as spheres (Just like in the b-mesh example or zspheres) or, if a chekbox is checked, as a mesh. Only two modes - object and edit. Edit mode works exactly like armature edit mode. Just that a lot of functionality you don’t need for it should be taken out, such as layers for example.
The properties should be only related to these BSpheres (No armature stuff). Properties include Mesh appearance. Then you just press Alt-C to convert it to a mesh or an armature.
But now that I think about it, using them as bones might also be a good idea, as long as the GUI is kept simple and clean.
Now the properties for bones have some messy parts… For example, the bone type is under “Display”, and “Custom bone shapes” are only available in pose mode (They should be available in edit mode)…
Bone type doesn’t only change the appearance - It changes the functionality. Which is the main point.
Bone appearance must be placed in the Display panel next to custom bone shapes. The functionality change should have it’s own panel named “Armature type”.
So basically armature type panel should include “Simple Bone”, “B-Bone”, “Envelope” and the new “MeshSpheres/BSpheres/Watevayouwannacallit”.
I think, Simple bones could be mixed with B-Bones into one, because they are the same thing, just that B-Bones can subdivide… Now that’s way cleaner.
Another thing:
It could completely replace Metaballs. Like who would ever need metaballs anymore? Can someone see any uses for metaballs if BSpheres are implemented as a seperate object type?
+1 to freemind
I would add a new object type to. It can reuse some of the armature behaviors, but I also think that other stuff should be disabled too.
But this feature would be great I think! Very good for basemodelling! 
Perhaps, but considering raw terminology: armatures are used for creating the underlying infrastructure to an object. It seems like that metaphor extends to this case rather nicely, whether the components of an armature are called bones or not.
Good point.
I think the point is to be creating a mesh anyway or a re-meshing strategy regardless of underlying objects used, whether they be metaballs, armatures, or primitives…I rather like the idea in anycase as a modifier…but I am just blowing steam…it is late for my old bones after all.
QFA! no point wasting time writing a yet another whole new object type,
unless your planning on adding alot of extra funcionality not already there.
I love the way this discussion is developing, however, there is old Macedonian saying that goes like this: ‘They are making a hat for the unborn Peter’ (actually there is a story when people quarreled about the size of the head of the unborn child). So, let’s see if there will be any takers willing to program this add-on, and then perhaps we can discuss about aesthetic sides of the implemented feature 
Or a mesh modifier using an armature as input.(?)
Nicolas linked a new image from his twitter last night. His pre-mesh armature looks very zSpheres like.
I’d link it here but the forum keeps yelling about new posts and URLs and forbidden words.
TheLorax
i put the link you mention there :
Awesome!!
The only minus that i see to this is that the spheres are quite distorted looking.
I wonder if it’s possible to draw 2D spheres instead or something like that…
I think that would be confusing since it would share some similarities to the armature modifier. I think it would be more logical to have it as an armature modifier since the armature is used to generate a mesh, rather than to deform it.
But then again, this is just a proposal.
A cool bonus from this would be that since it’s made of of bones, you would be able to pose the basemesh aswell as have it made automatically, i think thats how zSpheres work actually! But yes, i think the most ideal case here would be as some kind of “BoneSkin” modifier that does this ontop of existing armatures.
Here you go! There’s new pics at pasteall, but I can’t post links??
From nicholasbishop twitter
bsphere updates - fixes some kinks in the mesh, correct normals, better sphere drawing) patch soon!
Cool!!!
And what is this about when I try to post links? “Post denied. New posts are limited by number of URLs it may contain and checked if it doesn’t contain forbidden words.” links???
TheLorax
Certainly because you don’t have a high enough postcount on this account.
That’s some common anti-spam feature.
Nicholas Bishop twitter can be found there :
https://twitter.com/nicholasbishop