I can read your edits. I hope you are aware of that.
“Ok- so you, a Python veteran who has been using Blender (and Blender Python) for years - typed code into the text editor and clicked Run and are now confused about why that code was executed? Something doesn’t add up, and it’s not the documentation or a lack of examples. Look man, I’m not trying to break you down or something- I legitimately want to know how we as a development community, can improve the API documentation- but this is very much a PEBKAC issue.”
There is more than a PEBKAC here, there is a rotten attitude. Unbecoming behavior, and questioning what someone says like they are lying or something, then you think that it is OK to do it. That is a matter of respect, and if you do not give respect, don’t be surprized when the person you are talking to loses respect for you.
You made an obvious mistake and were corrected only to fervently argue that you were not wrong.
You say you’re a veteran of Python and Blender and yet refuse to read the API, don’t appear to recognize the code style, don’t understand the basics of registration, and are unaware that there are a number of detailed code examples for UI elements in the Blender text editor.
bpy.types.Scene.useColumnNr=bpy.props.IntProperty(name = "Nr. of column to use",min = 1, max = 100, soft_max = 100, default = 1) #soft_max numar de grafice ce pot aparea
You, you, you . . . . where did you learn your manners, in a pig pen? I can spare you the trouble, go back and read what I posted, I DID go look in the API, and I DID make a comment about the code in there. Flying off the handle and jumping to conclusions seems to be a profession in this forum tonight.
People just jump in on conversations before they even read what someone has said. They don’t know you, they jump to conclusions, question what you say, they think they know it all just because they have their nose stuck in the API. You’d think it was a political forum or something like that . . . .
It sure is hot in this thread. For me, the problem with the documentation, and most software documentation really, is not that the information would be missing, but rather that it is too difficult to find, and sometimes, when you have found it, you don’t realize you’re looking right at it.
I believe this question which testure just answered shows it quite well. I was looking for some kind of boolean property, instead I should have looked for enums; and then even after that, some creative thinking would be needed to connect the dots to understand what is meant by CAMERA there.
From my professional experience, a documentation won’t really shine unless it is accompanied by a guidebook. It wouldn’t explain every property of course, but you’d have all sorts of interconnected, bite-sized pages to explain key-concepts. Right now we have a quickstart and some lengthy module descriptions for everything under bpy, which make believe that all concepts can be understood in a 5-minute read. As soon as you want to do 1 thing more than the most basic hello triangle example, you’ll find more concepts that aren’t explained to you. You put on your detective’s coat, and off you go.
I am pretty sure we lack something in between the Blender reference manual and the Python API documentation. Something that helps to build a mental model of the abstractions which technicalities inevitably create, without having to worry about how to deal with it in Python. Then, the actual API documentation could blurt about technicalities with confidence to its heart’s content, because the reader already knows what they are looking for.
ZYL, I agree with you. I have the opinion that tools like EASYBPY are actually a good idea. WHY? Because having an abstraction layer can be an “easy button” to deal with:
a) Normal “script-breaking” API changes. (Not necessarily leaving complicated scripts as broken orphans. )
b) Allowing multi-step repetitive tasks to be consolidated into single commands
c) Making easier-to-maintain code
The success of open-source projects like Arduino, for example, is entirely due to the use of abstraction layers . The Arduino team unndestood that some people are “artists” not coders.