Re: [Visualpython-users] Let's hash out the documentation for restrictive imports

[Bruce S. <bas...@nc...>]

I'll immediately offer an alternative. Suppose there is in the visual
folder a file vobjects.py containing this:

from .primitives import (arrow, cylinder, cone, sphere, box, ring, label,
                               frame, pyramid, ellipsoid, curve,
faces, convex, helix,
                               points, text, distant_light, local_light)

Then you could do this:

import visual.vobjects as vo
c = vo.curve(pos=[(0,0,0), (1,0,0), (0,1,0)])

Would this be preferable to the following?

from visual.primitives import curve
c = curve(pos=[(0,0,0), (1,0,0), (0,1,0)])

Similarly, there could be a visual/vector.py file for the vector stuff
(vector, mag, etc.). There are already visual.crayola and
visual.materials files of this kind.

Bruce Sherwood

P.S. You might be wondering where numpy comes into this, considering
that for example the pos attribute of curve is a numpy array. The
numpy machinery is imported into the C++ component of Visual by
__init__.py, which is executed when you import (say) visual.primitive.
In the tiny program above, if you print(type(c.pos)) you'll see <class
'numpy.ndarray'>, and if you print(3*c.pos)) you'll see a 3 by 3 array
displayed that is 3 times that of c.pos. But your own namespace
doesn't contain numpy's array object, and trying to set b =
array([1,2,3]) gives an error: array not defined.