Written by hoehrer the 12 Jun 08 at 20:41.
Category: Tools.
Status: New
Description
Problem:
Imagine you've just created a group of nodes.
Now every socket in that node that is not yet used will be exposed when the group is collapsed.
This has some disadvantages (see also the images in [1] and [2]) when trying to use the node without opening the group for editing:
1) There often are many exposed sockets that you'll probably never need.
2) Multiple sockets often have the same names making it hart to tell them apart.
3) The names of the input and output sockets often say nothing about their function in the group.
1) Can be solved by adding 2 new node-types (maybe only available for usage in node-groups?).
One defines the input-, the other the output sockets that will be used by the group.
These nodes simply forward any data trough them (we would need a way to add any number&type of sockets here) but if used in a group they will be used as the _only_ input and output sockets for this group.
2) and 3) can be solved by extending the above nodes with a custom labels for each socket.
If no in-/output node exists the sockets of the group will behave exactly as it is now.
(Optional: limit the number of input/output nodes in a group to 1 ... whatever is easier for the developers ;))