ramdas
10-24-2006, 05:46 PM
I want to learn MEL. And I want to know that which is more IMP to learn MEL C or C++.
Please help.
Id Mubarak to All people .
Please help.
Id Mubarak to All people .
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futurcraft
10-24-2006, 08:15 PM
Well... MEL is very much based on C++ with is the mother of most programming languages.... and knowing c++ is definitely an advantage.. though you can also learn MEL alone without ur C++ knowledge... MAYA is quite user friendly that way... check out the MEL Reference and also a coupla websites...
http://www.melscripting.com/
and a few others which u can google up...
http://www.melscripting.com/
and a few others which u can google up...
Robert Bateman
10-24-2006, 08:50 PM
Well... MEL is very much based on C++ with is the mother of most programming languages....
mel is nothing like C++, and to be honest, it's nothing like C either. out of any language, mel is closest to TCL/tk - however mel completely lacks structs, classes, member functions, operator overloading, templates, pointers, references, etc etc.
I'd also point out that C++ is certainly not the mother of all languages. C, pascal or asm maybe, but definately not C++ - which by all accounts is largely broken in many respects (just compare delegates in C# to member function pointers in C++ for example....).
These days though, i'd say C# is a better language to learn if you actually want to program a useful tool - that said, it doesn't work with the Maya API..... but it is an easier to grasp language than C++, and it's exceptionally quick to get a decent pro-looking tool up and running in it.
However, to answer the OP's question, mel is more useful to know than C++ and the API. You can achieve most things you'll ever need to do very quickly and easily in mel once you grasp the basics. The API *can* be useful, but only if you need to extend Maya in a completely new way - ie, integrate some C++ lib such as Physics, sound or input method etc into it. The API is better for writing exporters, but everything else takes a lot of time and indepth knowledge to get working correctly.
So basically, if you are someone who wants to write well polished reusable and complex tools, then the API and C++ is worth learning. However if you just want to do things quicker in Maya via the use of programming, then the simple answer is mel. btw, there are also a few of my old lecture notes on the API and mel scripting on my website linked in my sig which may also be useful....
mel is nothing like C++, and to be honest, it's nothing like C either. out of any language, mel is closest to TCL/tk - however mel completely lacks structs, classes, member functions, operator overloading, templates, pointers, references, etc etc.
I'd also point out that C++ is certainly not the mother of all languages. C, pascal or asm maybe, but definately not C++ - which by all accounts is largely broken in many respects (just compare delegates in C# to member function pointers in C++ for example....).
These days though, i'd say C# is a better language to learn if you actually want to program a useful tool - that said, it doesn't work with the Maya API..... but it is an easier to grasp language than C++, and it's exceptionally quick to get a decent pro-looking tool up and running in it.
However, to answer the OP's question, mel is more useful to know than C++ and the API. You can achieve most things you'll ever need to do very quickly and easily in mel once you grasp the basics. The API *can* be useful, but only if you need to extend Maya in a completely new way - ie, integrate some C++ lib such as Physics, sound or input method etc into it. The API is better for writing exporters, but everything else takes a lot of time and indepth knowledge to get working correctly.
So basically, if you are someone who wants to write well polished reusable and complex tools, then the API and C++ is worth learning. However if you just want to do things quicker in Maya via the use of programming, then the simple answer is mel. btw, there are also a few of my old lecture notes on the API and mel scripting on my website linked in my sig which may also be useful....
sunit
10-24-2006, 09:33 PM
however mel completely lacks structs, classes, member functions, operator overloading, templates, pointers, references, etc etc.
not that i disagree with the rest of what you're saying, but mel does have a very specific implementation of references - a bit like java.
-sunit
not that i disagree with the rest of what you're saying, but mel does have a very specific implementation of references - a bit like java.
-sunit
futurcraft
10-24-2006, 11:56 PM
Well Robert...
Thanks for getting more specific in the issue of MEL & C++.... THough basically I am more into MEL than other languages...
Thanks for getting more specific in the issue of MEL & C++.... THough basically I am more into MEL than other languages...
Robert Bateman
10-25-2006, 02:37 AM
... but mel does have a very specific implementation of references - a bit like java.
only for arrays.
only for arrays.
ramdas
10-25-2006, 05:53 PM
Thanks A LOOOOOOOOOOOOT for this .
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