dMZX Forums: Returning words and "counters"/shorts via string indexing -> Archived Requests -> Tracker

I had an idea regarding string indexing: since $string.val always sets/returns a byte, maybe there could be to set/return multi-byte values from string indexing. This would simplify what otherwise turns into a bunch of pretty stupid bitshift constructs (As Seen In & Code Screenshots). Possible methods (in order of author's preference):

1) .word[ind], .counter[ind]
set "counter" $string.counter(32)"

2) .ind#1-4 (4 signed, others unsigned)
set "counter" "$string.32#4"

3) .ind[ub (default), b, uw, w, c/s]
set "counter" "$string.32c"

4) New operators (yeah, like we need to give strings MORE special chars)
yeah I have nothing, suggest something if you think this is a good idea, but I don't think it is

5) ?????

I like the first one, it doesn't break the existing model, would be useful and shouldn't be too much work to implement.

I think the only issue is that indexing by bytes may potentially confuse users not used to the number of bytes in words/shorts or the concept of little endian, but those users probably wouldn't be using strings anyway.

This is simple enough it could probably make 2.84 except that Terryn would have to cram more things into the help file last minute. 2.85 is just something I put down, but 2.84b is reasonable since the chance of anybody having used "$string.counter103" in a previous game is essentially non-existant.

I'd would recommend not hacking in string to counters using bytewise addressing. Robotic is a high level language and has too many low level features already. Until Exo's proposed language improvements are executed, where stuff like this could be made into built-in functions, I wouldn't add it.

Just my 2c.

--ajs.

This post has been edited by ajs: 31 May 2012 - 05:57 PM

Updating status to: Rejected

Agree. It's better just to let the game author handle this however they like once functions exist.

Updating version to: None

Moving to: Rejected Requests

Updating status to: Implemented
Updating severity to: 1 - Low
Updating version to: 2.84
Issue fixed in: 2.91

Turns out this was actually implemented as #2 in the initial post and this kind of rules as a feature now we have it. Oops />

Moving to: Archived Requests