I'd like to understand your workflow and practices for developing new tools and updating them.
Additionally, I need advice in these areas where I struggle:
VERSIONING:
- Why does Houdini's built-in HDA creation tool force versioning to start at 1.0, not 0.1? I believe "1.0" should represent the first milestone, not the starting point for a new tool.
- The built-in tool doesn't allow granular versioning like 1.0.3, leading to a premature 2.0 milestone. It increases by 0.1 with each save, permitting only 10 saves before a new x.0 milestone. Established HDA libraries (e.g., MOPs) use the x.x convention, so I wonder how they handle more granular saves during development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLM0LESO_kA [www.youtube.com]
EMBED INTERNAL ASSETS:
How do you handle the updating of a HDA that uses internal assets?
My HDAs often use internal service HDAs (not available to users in the TAB menu).
I use the "embed internal assets" function, but when saving the main HDA to a new version, the instances of sub-HDAs used in the MAIN HDA network are replaced with a "Merge Sop" node, which breaks the whole network.
This could be due to the main HDA's different namespace in the new version. When I use the embed function, the new installed internal asset has adn::Sop/Main_HDA::1.0::adn::Sop/Internal_HDA::1.0, so it's only available to Main_HDA::1.0.
Then when updating the Main_HDA to a new version, the internal_HDA isn't available to adn::Sop/Main_HDA::1.1, even if installed in the same library file, and thus the instances inside the network of main_HDA::1.1 are automatically replaced with a Merge Sop node.
It is such a struggle every time I save to a new version, because I have to manually update every instance of any internal hda used in the network. I believe I'm not using a the correct workflow here.
GITHUB REPOSITORY:
I'm new to GitHub and like the idea of an online public repository for my HDAs.
What's your workflow with GitHub used for Houdini development.
ROADMAP, FEATURE LIST, TASKS, TODOs, REQUESTS, CHANGELOG:
What's your approach to these aspects? Do you use any service? I'm interested in tracking my HDAs, organizing them in a database, maybe using Notion. It might be overkill or time-consuming for a solo dev like I am, so I'm open to learning from your experience.