kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 11/01/2017 à 14:37, Jean-Samuel Reynaud a écrit :
> Hi all,
> 
> So concerning this feature. You prefer to keep it on hold or I create a
> patch without the python example (and code formatting fixes ;)

Hi, Jean-Samuel,

Here is my opinion:

I see 2 different things:
1_) the new Action Plugin feature and the ability to load a python script in pcbnew outside the
Python console.
2-) the ability to run a plugin from a menu in the board editor by any user.

I am thinking the 1-) is good.
However it needs to be fixed (especially because plugins can be now reloaded (updated) from
currently the footprint wizard selector dialog
for me, ACTION_PLUGINS::register_action is buggy.

Pay a particular attention to the fact plugins can be *now* updated (when the source file has
changed), and therefore menus can also be updated.
the "PCB_EDIT_FRAME::createActionPluginMenus()" method calls Connect, but Disconnect is never called
by destructors.
It can create issues when updating scripts, because it could be called more than once.

Have a look into FOOTPRINT_WIZARDS::register_wizard( FOOTPRINT_WIZARD* aWizard ), and into the
commit 4f46f79cf0d601ec18fe685a414e8a778a9c143b

2-) From my point of view it should be (at least for now) only available if a specific option (for
instance "KICAD_ENABLE_ACTION_MENUS" is enabled (and of course not enabled by default).
It must be reserved to developers who know what they are doing, and not yet accessible to users.


My last remark:
To load python scripts (wizards and other python script) KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON is not mandatory.
KICAD_SCRIPTING is enough.


Courage, Jean-Samuel.

> 
> Regards,
> Le 10/01/2017 à 18:23, Wayne Stambaugh a écrit :
>> Here's my two cents.  I share JP and Chris' concerns about developing
>> python scripts.  As project leader, I can see where a lot of things can
>> go seriously wrong.  Maybe we should make it clear that there should be
>> no expectation from python developers that the api will remain stable
>> during development or between stable releases so I'm comfortable
>> addressing anyone who makes fuss about api changes.  I'm also
>> comfortable telling python devs if you break it you get to keep both
>> pieces.  We are also under no obligation to include python scripts that
>> are called by this interface.
>>
>> That being said, I understand the usefulness of the python scripting.  I
>> don't want to cut off python developers at the knees because of
>> potential issues.  I'm OK with this patch as long as we do not include
>> any python scripts that get called by this patch.  In other words, the
>> user bears all responsibility for the performance of their python
>> scripts not the kicad project.
>>
>> On 1/10/2017 10:54 AM, Chris Pavlina wrote:
>>> What do you do when the internal APIs change and the plugins stop
>>> working?
>>>
>>> I think encouraging people to use this is very dangerous. It is tied so
>>> much into our internal APIs at the moment. The more people who use it,
>>> the more everybody is going to scream every single time we change
>>> anything. We have so much poorly structured code that needs to be
>>> rewritten - I'm sure a lot of it *will* be when it comes time to remove
>>> the legacy canvas. If we end up with this many users of the scripting
>>> API, we will never be able to touch anything again without breaking
>>> everything.
>>>
>>> Wayne, JP: I'm making an appeal to you now to be conservative with
>>> what you accept for use with the scripting API. This would be a very bad
>>> point to lock ourselves into having to stabilize it as is. I do not
>>> think we should be doing this until an interposing layer with a
>>> formalized, stable API can be created.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 04:25:10PM +0100, Jean-Samuel Reynaud wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Just from my point of view:
>>>>  We use some python plugin currently and it's not really easy to open
>>>> each time python console (and remember plugins name, call mode...).
>>>>
>>>>  I'm agree with you: During devs of scripts it's crashing and my devs
>>>> have to find the rigth way to process.
>>>>
>>>>  But this kind of feature can increase number of users/devs of this kind
>>>> of scripts and raise crash case easily.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Le 10/01/2017 à 16:00, Chris Pavlina a écrit :
>>>>> Frankly I don't think we should be encouraging users to use the Python
>>>>> API until it is significantly improved. The issues JP raises make the
>>>>> API completely unsuitable for plugin use. It's opaque and no users have
>>>>> any idea how to write robust Python plugins given the current state of
>>>>> the API.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jan 10, 2017 09:55, "jp charras" <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> <mailto:jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>     Le 10/01/2017 à 15:18, Maciej Sumiński a écrit :
>>>>>     > Hi Jean-Samuel,
>>>>>     >
>>>>>     > I think your patch will facilitate use of 3rd party python plugins, as
>>>>>     > the current way of executing commands from the Python shell is not
>>>>>     quite
>>>>>     > user friendly. I vote for merging the patch, but we need to fix some
>>>>>     > code formatting issues first.
>>>>>     >
>>>>>     > Also, I wonder if it would be the right thing to group menu entries by
>>>>>     > their categories to create submenus. It could be a simple way to
>>>>>     > organize the actions provided by python plugins. Just an idea.
>>>>>     >
>>>>>     > Another question is about the following lines:
>>>>>     > +        if( IsGalCanvasActive() )
>>>>>     > +        {
>>>>>     > +            UseGalCanvas( GetGalCanvas() );
>>>>>     > +        }
>>>>>     >
>>>>>     > What is exactly the goal here? If it is only about refreshing the
>>>>>     > canvas, then a simple Refresh() call should fix the problem.
>>>>>     >
>>>>>     > Regards,
>>>>>     > Orson
>>>>>     >
>>>>>
>>>>>     This is a good work.
>>>>>     Thanks Jean-Samuel.
>>>>>
>>>>>     However, before merging we have to take care of issues which can
>>>>>     easily crash Pcbnew:
>>>>>     Because a python script can modify the board outside the control of
>>>>>     pcbnew edit functions, I am
>>>>>     thinking problems will arise with undo/redo lists (invalid
>>>>>     pointers), ratsnest data and certainly a
>>>>>     few other things.
>>>>>
>>>>>     Especially for scripts which add or delete items, or change
>>>>>     connectivity.
>>>>>
>>>>>     Of course, undo/redo lists are alway incorrect after running such
>>>>>     scripts.
>>>>>     This is already a known issue for scripts that are run from the
>>>>>     Pcbnew python console.
>>>>>
>>>>>     --
>>>>>     Jean-Pierre CHARRAS
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
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-- 
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS