Some more specific reasons I use classes... If you want to have it run in a verbose or debug mode, to maybe print more output, you would make it a class that has say a verbose attribute. Then all your methods can check "if self.verbose" and do more output. Also, say your tool has a UI component to it. I have a lot of tools that can just be run as a command or can bring up a GUI. You GUI can be brought up with, say, a show() method and can set the state of attributes for when the actual work method gets called.
self.show() -> set some attribs: self.thisVal, self.thatVal -> hitting an ok button calls self.create() I'm sure that I am missing a lot better examples. But I'm just coming up with this off the cuff :-) I have one tool that automatically sets up IK on the legs of a character, from the selected joints. It has a lot of internal state where its remembers names and paths of objects its creating along the way. It would be a lot more work for me to have to pass around lots of data structures to maintain the state as it runs. I can break work up into smaller routines that maybe don't return anything, but rather just update the attributes of the class instance. Also, if you end up getting into using pyqt in maya (which kicks ass, as opposed to dealing with that shitty MEL ui code), you will end up using clases. I wrote a blog article about installing that: http://www.justinfx.com/2011/01/07/installing-pyqt-for-maya-2011-osx/ As for pymel, I tried it out in maya 2009 before it came integrated in 2011. I like what they were trying to do, by making the calls more pythonic, but I actually found it to be slower than calling the standard python API. Probably a lot of overhead in what the underlying code does to populate its objects. Maybe its faster now, Im not sure. On Jul 29, 2:55 pm, Martin La Land Romero <[email protected]> wrote: > I was also wondering the same thing that pixelmuncher brought up. I usually > relay on functions instead of classes. I would love to learn more about > their within maya. > > Thanks > On Jul 29, 2011 10:20 AM, "PixelMuncher" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > Justin pretty much summed it up. > > I'm not a professional coder, but I write a lot of Maya tools for > > myself. > > I started w/Mel, then checked out Python, which has become my favorite > > language. > > I haven't used classes, and want to find out about what I'm missing. > > I understand your point of view Alexander - that using classes could > > be considered superfluous for my needs, but I want to see how they > > work and if I can see any advantage to using them in my coding. > > I appreciate Justin's comment that they can used simply as a way to > > keep code organized - I have done similar type of coding (using > > methods and attributes) with Actionscript, and this worked well for me > > in the past. > > I used pymel for awhile, but found that, as a one person shop, it was > > too hard to keep track of what is pymel vs. what is python, so for now > > I'm sticking to python. > > > Also, regarding the use of the object param to create a new style > > class - I read up on that. Is it correct that that is now optional > > and all classes are automatically cast as they type 'object'? > > > Thanks for the help and feedback. > > > -- > > view archives:http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya > > change your subscription settings: > > http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya/subscribe -- view archives: http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya change your subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/python_inside_maya/subscribe
