Hacker News Reader

Comment by m0zg | Hacker News Reader

Nobody wants to learn yet another language.

No need, as there is solidpython [1] which lets you use OpenSCAD from Python. The notation is brief, Pythons expressiveness makes everything easier and the learning curve is extremely low.

[1] https://github.com/SolidCode/SolidPython

Especially OpenSCAD's language: paying the price to learn a new DSL is only a reasonable investment when said DSL brings in a ton of added value as compared to a generic programming language.

OpenSCAD's DSL is a rather feeble attempt at a functional programming language, brings in almost no added value compared to - say - python and worst of all is very limited and has no library ecosystem.

Do yourself a favor and learn one of the python-based solutions that end up calling the same computational geometry engine (namely CGAL).

SolidPython is recommended in a sibling. Are there any others you can suggest?

SolidPython is the most mature and the one I'm using. There were others I tried before settling on solid, but TBH I forgot their name.

SolidPython has downsides though:

    - it is a giant PITA to install: you have to deploy that monstrous wart called "conda" which will gobble up 6G of your drive and fricking patch you .bashrc, all of this just so you can install solid

    - it lacks the following feature that native openscad has: "edit model source code with <insert fave editor here> and openscad will recompute the model automatically every time you save.

There's a way to implement that feature with an additional package (solidpython-reloader), but at that point, you've lost 80% of your target audience.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com