VTK 9.4 - more pythonic style

[andrea-bistacchi]

Until recently, the python wrapper naively exposed the C++ functions to Python. For example, a C++ member function vtkRenderWindow::SetSize got wrapped into the python member function SetSize. While that is uninspiring for many, it was already challenging to get to that point. Recall that python wrapping in VTK was developed long before pybind11 existed. (...) Over the years, the wrapper subsystem was extended to include more capabilities for developer convenience. One of the feature (...) added for VTK 9.3 was the introduction of interface files (.pyi) that PyCharm and other development tools use to provide more information, such as PEP 484 type hints.

Starting with the upcoming 9.4 release, (...) the wrapper subsystem enables access to properties of a VTK object in a pythonic style, initialization of VTK objects through specifying keyword arguments in the constructor, and finally, a convenient syntax to connect VTK algorithms and data objects and reuse the resulting pipelines with different inputs.

https://www.kitware.com/vtk-9-4-a-step-closer-to-the-ways-of-python/

As for 2024-11-05 we are using VTK 9.3, but we should consider upgrading in the future.

[gbene]

Finally!