Too specific ?
If we accept these kinds of questions we end up with 100’s of random questions about specific features, why behavior doesn’t change - or how they might work differently…
Questions about work-in-progress are better suited to a monthly update. If we attempt this on the wiki… the information will get out of date and become a bad resource.
@ideasman, done with numbering.
In fact most/all? of your questions seem like they are better for @m9@105826’s transparency report.
This one turned faster from “Ask us Anything” to “don’t bother us with questions” than expected. 
Ok, so, alembic is in work in progress, so will you add an import export or it will be just for caching ?
@pitiwazou, currently only for caching
lukas could better speak to this…
Once the library is included with Blender, I expect it wont be so much extra work to have an exporter.
Though I have the impression alembic is a bit like FBX or Collada - in that its a container where everyone writes what they like, so having good compatibility isn’t assured. Even so, there may be a common enough defacto standard we can use which is supported across most applications.
@Tiles, however we call it or handle it - we have to be able to maintain it. Otherwise theres no point. If we attempt to answer everything we’re just going to fail… and it will become another initiative with good intentions but fizzle out because there simply isn’t enough time to communicate all details about any random branch/patch/development.
It was never submitted for inclusion (from a quick search).
I think you’re all talented programmers, i am curious i trained myself c++ coding (arduin/RasbPI etc) but I am not into blender.
I lack advanced 3D math knowledge, do at one point i had build a second live ‘spawn builder’ that was 3D too.
But blender is a bit to big for me to comprehend, once in a while i’m looking into coding those open issue Tnumbers
followed D808 for a while, but i lack knowledge of the blender framework.
So i’m interrested into how you people got some backgrond in programming c++.
Was it school based, or selftrained, and how did you get your way into blender.
where did you start on, what followed and what has your personal blender interest besides the main project to do’s.
Answering this would be a reciepe for maybe a few new web pages on blender.org maybe.
But besides all the 3d magic and new features, i think the coding side should get more attention.
Not because about a certain future, but because its coding, its solving, its finding new methods, understanding the blender realm.
This is about the node system.
- Why are the image processing functions like bilateral blur locked into the compositing nodes? They are general functions and it’s frustrating having them right there, but being unable to actually use them in my own Python scripts.
- Any plans on making more documentation on how to build your own node systems and custom socket data structures? Also Pynodes in general.
- Thoughts on just having a single node system for everything and using general, predefined data structures for moving data around. (Generic data structure A -> Function (a node) -> Generic data structure B). I don’t see any negatives in this. I see only positives. Maybe it’s my programmer mind that can’t see the artist point of view, but I just don’t get it.
- Is there a way/will there be a way to use either GLSL or OpenCL for node math processing. It would be a true blessing. For example if you had GLSL you could use existing code base of Awesomebump and bring it straight to Blender.
And finally: a big thank you for your good work so far! 
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Any particular reason why Blender doesn’t use Qt for its GUI? Any future plan about it?
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About importers/exporters: it seems GPL license sort of limits what can be done for proprietary but widely used formats…so are there any “workarounds” which can be done? For example, wouldn’t a separate application “B3D Importer/Exporter” released under a non-GPL license do the trick?
2b)…Wouldn’t this also help solving lots of troubles for external commercial apps/renderers/plugins?
I have another. I’m OpenSource user since a long time, and I have a concern. What are the chances that OpenSource developments as Blender 3D are corrupted by big Software Corporations in order to make that OpenSource software has a bad development or slow development? with the aim that the OpenSource software does not cause them to lose customers and money and simulate that OpenSource development continues in good health, so for example, it not be tempted to be forked by others.
(If there is little chance, give a concise explanation of why are little chances)
You know, when a small proprietary software is becoming a headache for these big companies, they can simply buy it to make it disappear. But they can not do easily disappear OpenSource software. So I wondered how those big companies could influence in a bad way with OpenSource.
- You are free to rephrase my question in good English.
2 question:
-What is the development state of the “multi-camera solving and constrained solutions” that i can read in the manual?
-Do you plan to support GPU Cycles rendering for the OSL?
what happens if ton retires? will blender be able to survive?
I thought we already had the answer about why the alternative keymaps/UI targets are not being met. Ideasman said in another thread there’s nobody working on them. The question is why list them as targets when they don’t generate enthusiasm among developers? Which is what I have observed in the open-source world. Usability issues are considered grunt work when they should be considered main features just as the others.
Are the paid devs under some contract??
Coz there are certain developing features very specific to a particular dev(eg : Cycles - Brecht,Pynodes - Lukas)
Cycles has suffered due to brecht leaving…
What if lukas or any other decides to leave??We loose that feature??
I don’t have any questions. I just want to thank all the devs for giving us Blender!
There are some Q’s which Im not sure are good for general Q&A format, so answered some inline…
@Razorblade #27, how different devs got involved with Blender is better suited to an interview format since each developer has their own story… Think this would be a nice blog post on code.blender.org. But doesnt fit so well with Q&A format.
(though quick answer, approx half blender devs are largely self taught).
@ambi #28, your Q’s are getting a bit specific - but a dev who works on the node system more then I do might like to reply. (AFAIK there are no plans for any of the features you pointed out).
@marcoG_ita #29,
- added: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/AskUsAnything#Why_not_use_an_existing_GUI_toolkit.3F
I rather not add the next one to the Q&A…
- I would say proprietary-software limits you here, but thats a matter of perspective. Trying workarounds for licensing is murky stuff, its hard to give a succinct answer here since there are all sorts of legal gray areas, levels of risk, legal issues depending on where you live… different workarounds - and exactly what is/isn’t possible on a technical level depends on a lot on each scenario. So I don’t think a general answer is possible here… The sort answer is - Yes there are workarounds, and most of them are problematic.
The bottom line is a useful “B3D Importer/Exporter” application will have to include so much of Blender logic, to the point its basically re-implementing all of Blender (except for the UI).
2b) Perhaps.
@YAFU. Its an interesting question - any answers will include healthy doses of speculation so not sure its a good candidate for the WIKI,
Thomas and me discussed at length on this pod-cast: http://blender-podcast.org/?p=582 (TL;DR version of my personal opinion - its not completely impossible, just very unlikely).
Also, any answers probably aren’t unique to Blender - you could ask the same question for Krita, Audacity… other similar size open-source projects.
@AndreaMonzini #?? - 1) too specific, 2) not AFAIK… but am not expert here.
@kakapo #32 Ton was asked this in a recent interview http://blender-podcast.org/?p=654 his response was not overly concerned that Blender would fail.
@blendDoodler #33 I think you conflate too many issues in your question.
Regarding keymaps - assume your referring to: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Projects/UI/2.70-targets
This was added by Johnathan Williamson, obviously the target was added and not met.
As far as I know, no developer was ever assigned this task and I wasn’t even aware of this page until searching for it.
We have great volunteers, but you are holding developers accountable to something (AFAIK) nobody agreed to.
And disagree that usability issues are considered grunt work.
@kanishk2391 #34, re: maintainers leaving - in every case the answer is different. The features wont be lost, but they may only see basic maintenance until another developer picks up on the work.
Cycles will likely never have OSL on the GPU. This is not a Cycles problem, the OSL library simply isn’t designed for the GPU and Sony has no interest in adding GPU support. Any others who claim OSL on the GPU are likely just using some kind of wrapper to interpret OSL into something the GPU understands, which isn’t an easy task.
Thanks for the heads up Campbell. I had assumed that this thread was in reference to a montly/ongoing thing, which would have overlapped heavily with my plan. For now I guess I’ll retool the first post and then continue with the questions from then on.
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Are there any plans to finally make it possible to edit the components (Vertices, Edges, Faces) of multiple objects at the same time?
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Are there any plans to finally replace the current layer system with something new, allowing unlimited number of named layers?
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Is any developer working on finishing experimental Cycles features, like SSS, Displacement and Smoke/Fire on GPU?
How are the module developers and module users working together?
I would like to express sincere gratitude to developers for all their hard work!
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I am interested to know what is the best way for community to voice their opinion on features or general development ? ( instead of littering the forums)
// For instance ADSK has a prioritized feature list that is voted up by users which seems very efficient. Perhaps implementing a database of sorts with secondary targets can be crowdfunded and as such accelerate/benefit the development? Features like Alembic and Viewport, even though not prioritary, could be voted/(crowd)funded in a more “open source” way. -
I am also interested to know how if there are any plans for making educational material for development of Blender or what are the best ways currently to get involved with development?
// I understand the program evolves rapidly so things might get rapidly outdated; However currently the information is minimal, there is almost no documentation and the codebase is enormous. A few tutorials on things like writing modifiers, introduction to blender DNA/RNA and other custom functionality can help a lot of developers get engaged.
Thank you