Practical Maya Programming with Python

Contributing to the open source community

At this point, you should be able to use open source code from other people in a way more maintainable than copying and pasting the bits you need into your own scripts. Inevitably, at some point while using third-party code you will find a bug or some vital missing feature. You will be at a crossroads and must decide between the following:

• Throw away the existing code and build your own. In the open source world, this is almost never preferable. If you are tempted down this path, think twice. The less experience you have with a problem, the more likely you are to underestimate how much work went into solving it. Since you are using someone else's library to solve a problem, the existing code is likely better ...