This is a request to all Blender Addon developers. More specificaly, those developing addons for 2.80. As you all know, Blender’s code gets updated everyday (even on holidays - to my surprise). This means that lines in your code may be misinterpreted in the next update and the next and the next, causing it to break.
The solution(s):
Try to simplify your code - @jayanam has an addon called Fast Carve that has never broken for me since he ported it to 2.80. Though his code is intermediate (not his skill, just the code for this addon), it still does good things. It’s a boolean addon by the way.
In contrast, addons like HardOps are very advanced with a million files and yet, it still rarely breaks. For the addons that break on seemingly every update and become unfixable by users like myself, that’s what this point is about. The method of coding used (if that’s the right way to say it) is not forward compatible.
Provide us with the version of Blender 2.80 that was tested with your addon - This is not efficient at all but, at least your addon(s) will work. And yes, I mean upload a “.ZIP” file or your Blender build so that your customers (for commercial addons only) may be able to download it and use it. This is just so that your addon can work but, may break any other addon your customer may have. So again, not efficient at all.
Does anyone else experience what I’ve just mentioned? What are your thoughts?
For clarity, this is by no means a rant. I am happy that Blender has this awesome community with developers taking it to the next level. This is just an IMHO type of post.
PS #1: Not sure where to put this thread…
PS #2: I am not a developer myself so I am very likely wrong in everything I’ve said. So…
PS #3: …if that’s the case, disregard everything I said.
“Don’t Let Me Fall” - Coming to a future near you…
In the meantime, you can find me on the following sites:
Thx for pointing this out, another reason my addon (Fast-Carve) stays compatible is that I work an it almost every day and I always use the latest Blender version for development, that turns out to be a good habbit for me.
I really added some high sophisticated stuff (openGL, gpu, bool and bevel modifiers) but using the method mentioned above keeps the addon alive:-)
The 2.8 branch for my addon can be downloaded here.
This is what I am talking about. This dedication from developers is unmatched. Not only that, Fast Carve is a free addon. Hoping to see a paid version from you sir. I now imagine your dedication to development to be comparable to the HardOps team.
Hum, addons are provided as is and blender 2.8 is still in development, it’s expected that things will break from time to time.
Also changes in python doesn’t append that often, but I think you shouldn’t use these addons and stick to 2.79 if you don’t want to be annoyed.
You can’t ask for something provided for testing to work as if it’s final, it’s like telling developers : please fix all bugs so 2.8 work as expected…
For addon that you’ve buyed it’s also a kind of “for testing purpose” and in fact you’ve bought the version that will be release when blender 2.8 will be official.
For the most part, I was really only referring to paid addons. The reason I mentioned Fast Carve is because of the fact that it never breaks (for me).
As for this, I can’t fully agee with you because again, HardOps rarely breaks. The point can be made up that maybe I should not download a new Blender everyday but, this is not just for persons like myself.
Let’s give a real scenario here:
Blender 2.80 lures in a small industrial design company who loves the new interface and they decide to purchase HardOps right away because they’ve heard great things. The download for Blender they have keeps crashing whenever they try to go to the texturing tab (No, they don’t know they can simply change the “space-view” they are in). HardOps is working though so they decide to wait until tomorrow (when the newest Blender 2.80 is available) to do any texturing.
Next day they download the newest Blender and the texture tab is now working but, “surprise!” HardOps isn’t working anymore.
I hope this brings across my point a little better.
I really do agree that coding is something that should be done as safe and conservative as possible (if that phrase can be used in English?). But who uses beta software in a serious pipeline that ones income depend on? Seriously?! I would’ve no problem using 2.80 for hobby stuff or very simple work that doesn’t matter if it’s destroyed by an update. But for actual work?
Yes it’s true that people don’t actually read or always understand the meaning of alpha and beta, and I can agree that it should be more clear on the 2.80 download page. It’s not obvious that it’s potentially unstable releases.
There have been quite a lot of irritation on 2.8 Blender so far that stems from that many users are not familiar with software development and I feel the devs sometimes get too much flak because of that. Unnecessarily harsh judgement has come from people using 2.8 alpha without reasoning that it’s under development. On the other hand, the open betas for Blender show more bugs earlier so I guess the open development is a double edged sword.
Hmm I assume it’s just me being a grumpy engineer working with (or against ) software every day. At work (day job as electronics engineer) I would barely touch new software until it gets a couple of months old to not risk the worst bugs. I could not recommend that enough…
Cheers
This is my usual approach and I actually do not use Blender 2.80 as my main (just to clarify). It’s just that I’ve noticed that addon developers (at least, for the addons I use) have halted their development of the 2.79 versions of their addons (understandably).
Furthermore, they have added new features to their 2.80 versions that are not in the 2.79 versions. Though the features are new, they are so great sometimes, it’s like you can’t live without it (even though you used to or never even thought of it).
I can gladly say I have only ever complained (to myself) about 2.50 - 2.79b. I started using Blender after the first big update but even then it did not really appeal to me until the last few months (around June 2018 I believe). That was when I decided to stop pirating pro(prietary) software and use either free or cheap pro(fessional) software like Blender, Krita and Affinity Designer. No regrets.
Well say “thank you” to the softwares & video games industry, which since maybe 10 years has been advertising and selling products as is but with a “beta” label, then alpha, then pre alpha, the pre-dev-preview-stillgivingmemoremoney, … yay \o/
I know… But what I really don’t get is that people actually buy it? Haven’t people gotten burned by this enough by now?
Even games that are sold as complete isn’t even always done.
Well, not only people don’t stop. They do pay for that, more and more, and for a higher price. And they also pay for lootboxes, extra useless features and shiny skins. So I guess it won’t get better soon. x)
) software every day. At work (day job as electronics engineer) I would barely touch new software until it gets a couple of months old to not risk the worst bugs. I could not recommend that enough…
