Runtime DNA merges with DAZ 3D

[Gadget Girl]

The reason being that Poser uses an internal Python version and they don't want us to install another version in our computers to avoid confusion. People would think Poser installs Python during its own installation, but no, it already comes with its own version built-in.

Well that explains a few things. I've always felt like I've found both python 2.6 and 2.7 stuff that seems to work in Poser. Now I know why I've never been able to figure out which version to use.

I like to program on an IDE and not a text editor. Ironically, I even bought a couple of Python books, but none of them worked, even in the simplest examples, because Python apparently couldn't care less for backwards compatibility.

I agree with you about preferring IDEs, but if you ever do decided to give Poser Python a go again, I recommend Sublime Text: The text editor you'll fall in love with As text editor's go it's pretty powerful. If you save the file you are working on as .py it starts color coding stuff for python. It's also great at autocomplete when it comes to dealing with a customer framework like Poser has. It's pretty smart at recommending stuff you've typed before so you usually only have to type in a method name once.

It also has a great feature where next to the scroll bar it shows a tiny version of the document with the part you are looking at highlighted. I love this for things like hand editing out the geometry in say a .pp2 file, because even though I can't read the text, I can easily see where the start and end of the geometry stuff is by the formatting and easily select and delete it out.

Also if you do want to try out python in Poser again, I highly recommend PhilC's Poser Python tutorial. Even though it was written for Poser 8, most of it still holds true, and he took the time to set up a good table of contents in the pdf, so when I'm looking up a Poser python method it's still way faster and easier to find it in his pdf, than the one SM gives us.

Python is one language I never took any classes in. I should try it some time, though I doubt I'd ever produce any Poser Python scripts.

Personally I hate Python. I get why Poser probably used it when it first came out, and why they've probably stuck with it, but I'm a strong typed girl and python is not. I'm told that for people who don't know any coding it's considered easy to learn. I think though you would pick up some bad habits learning that way (much like I did learning to program in BASIC, although to be fair OOP wasn't really a thing back then, at least not on the computer's I had access to). Still, there are some pretty cool little things you can do to make your Poser life easier if you pick up a bit of python.

 

[Ken1171]

I wholeheartedly agree that Python enforces some pretty bad practices that should be avoided. But even though strongly typed languages should be the normal for modern standards, Python seems to be growing in popularity, and has been growing in industry adoption, and nowadays has become the way to go with embedded programming everywhere. Even the almighty Autodesk has added support for it in 3DSMAX, replacing MAX Script with Python. I understand why different companies would like to adopt an industry standard instead of making up their own scripting languages, though. The idea behind it is solid, but I question why picking an untyped language in this day and age.

I already have Phil Cook's tutorial on CD-ROM over here on my shelf, and I have heard of the great Sublime Text editor, though I have been using NotePad++ for years, which is free and supports color coding and auto-completion. Nonetheless, I prefer an IDE, and there are free ones available for Python that are based on the awesome Eclipse open source framework.

But to be able to use an IDE, we must have Python installed separately from Poser, and we must know what version to use. That would be a first step. Some years ago, I tried to setup an IDE to get started with Python, but couldn't get it to work in Windows - the installer wouldn't complete the setup, and the IDE would not recognize Python was installed, so the debugger wouldn't work. Instead, I had to install Python on a Linux virtual machine, which was highly inconvenient because the Poser libraries are Poser-only. To complete the picture, all Python books I had purchased wouldn't work with the Python version I was using, even the most elementary examples.

And then they claim Python to be an easy thing...

 

[Miss B]

Most modern programming languages follow the international ECMA Script standard, like C, Java, C#, and ActionScript. However, Python is a very unusual language in that aspect - it has some pretty oddball ways of doing things that are reminiscent of the early days of programming languages. For starters, it's a quite minimalistic language, even MORE than C. That can lead to love or hate situations, where a single line of code can encapsulate a dozen different operations that can be quite hard to read. Python is also a language that seems to rely a lot on recursive loops to get things done, which is definitely not for everyone, and can easily lead to crashes and unpredictable results if not handled very carefully. In computer science, there are no lack of articles claiming that recursion should be treated as a last resort, and not common practice. Here again, Python doesn't seem to agree with that. Somehow, programming languages that don't follow modern standards make me nervous, because they are more prone to repeat mistakes from the past.

Well I started programming with Basic on my first DOS based computer, and the phrase spaghetti code fit it to a "T". I took a class in C, and did ActionScript when I was creating with Flash, though I haven't done that in quite some time.

Most of my programming classes, while I was getting my CIS degree, were done in COBOL, and I did a semester of MVS/JCL when we were working on a mainframe. I didn't pursue any of those, but branched off to JavaScript, PHP, MySQL and the like when I decided I'd prefer to code for the Web, rather than create business apps.

I just like the idea of more knowledge, and I like to push myself at times, so taking a class in Python would be interesting, if for no other reason than to push myself to learn something new.

 

[Ken1171]

COBOL and mainframes have both died away over time, so you didn't miss anything. On the other hand, web programming is in huge demand nowadays, being more relevant than ever! ^^

Python is becoming quite popular these days, being adopted in several embedded systems as the default scripting language. Though I just wanted to learn it because of Poser.

 

[Miss B]

Yes, Blender uses Python scripting as well.

 

[quietrob]

COBOL and mainframes have both died away over time, so you didn't miss anything. On the other hand, web programming is in huge demand nowadays, being more relevant than ever! ^^

Python is becoming quite popular these days, being adopted in several embedded systems as the default scripting language. Though I just wanted to learn it because of Poser.

 

[Ken1171]

Yes, Blender uses Python scripting as well.

I think it makes more sense to adopt a known standard than to create your own and make people learn it. For many years, DAZ used to create their own proprietary formats that no one could open and edit. Nowadays they have switched to JSON scripting to write all their DS files, which is a standard a lot of people are already familiar with, especially from web programming. Adobe did the same thing with Flash FLA flies, adopting open XML instead of oddball proprietary formats. Even Microsoft did the same with their XDOC format for Microsoft Office.

Some book authors claim this was a major reason why Poser because so popular - it has always used accessible plain text file formats for all it's files from the very beginning. This has allowed people to extend Poser's capabilities over time, like it happened when Chuck Taylor invented ERCs, which revolutionized figure rigging as we know today.

 

[quietrob]

Pinging because I can't get enough knowledge and my alerts disappeared!

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Has anyone been able to login to their RDNA cart? Every time I attempt to log in, it redirects me to the DAZ Login. Logging in there doesn't update the RDNA page ... and it becomes a vicious circle. What's in my cart isn't available in the DAZ Store ... not that I shop at DAZ anymore, but these products are free products I had missed getting previously.

 

[Lorraine]

I'm logged into RDNA, Satira, and I just purchased one of the freebies to check it could be done. All went through and I have a download link.

 

[Ken1171]

I have bought a couple of products at RDNA recently, and it all went smoothly. I noticed the login page has been changed by DAZ, but everything else seems the same as before. I can still access everything I have purchased there, and payments still appear to be processed manually, since download links still take days to process.

 

[quietrob]

The Login does look different but it is for that site not the DAZ site. I was able to do a search of my own downloads and everything went smoothly. The Store page itself isn't giving you new sales and such but what is shown is available.

Something else I noticed was that my downloads were also available at DAZ as well. This is a duplication of effort that I applaud. I remember buying an item from a now defunct store and when I lost a runtime and went to rebuild it, I couldn't go there and download stuff again. They had their store front but nothing worked. Just in case if I were you, I would start downloading my old purchases. Something that isn't fun as it used it to be was Poser selling stuff item by item rather memberships. Still, I'm glad they are there selling Poser stuff and not just G3M or G3F items.

 

[Dragonsegg]

It is only some items that are available at DAZ. I think it is just the ones they are selling. So if you have stuff for Dusk or Dawn or most of the freebies you need to download it before the RDNA website goes poof.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

When you log into RDNA, does the page say RDNA? If I click on Login, I get a page that says XCART. That's the only page that doesn't redirect to DAZ.

 

[Rae134]

Sorry Satira I can't help. I'm always logged in, and when I'm on the home page and hit store it goes there for me and I was able to get a few of the freebies I was missing (I grabbed the Poser ones because you never know when I'll start using it ). A have in the last couple of weeks purchased a couple of the cheaper items as well).

Not all things are in the Daz store yet, they are still moving stuff over, and they still haven't linked all the purchase from the RDNA account to the Daz one yet (I noticed a few of my items had moved over but there was one that didn't so I put a ticket in and that's what they said)

 

[Miss B]

I'm always logged in as well, so even if I go directly to the store from one of my browser bookmarks, it still looks exactly as it did before the merger.

 

[quietrob]

Try this. See if it works.

Runtime DNA Inc.

 

[Lorraine]

I'm always logged in as well, on my phone.

 

[Miss B]

Well Satira, I logged out of RDNA, closed my browser, dumped the cache, and logged back into my browser. When I went to the store bookmark I often use if I'm not already on the forum, and it gave me the same page you get, with XCart in the top left hand corner.

I was able to log back in though, so not sure why you're having a problem.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I never attempted to log into the XCart page since I'd never registered with XCart. Consequently, I wasn't sure if it was legitimate or bogus.

But ... after Miss B logged in, I then attempted to login. Though it apparently had the wrong password, so I ended up having my account suspended. Once it was reinstated, I logged in with the correct password and was able to complete my free order.

In these days of compromised sites every time you blink, it seems a bit irresponsible to have a page that looks so bogus.

But ... I'm just a flighty customer, you know :wink: