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[Aqizzar]

Reflection sounds like something I'll have to read up on.  If my current modus operandi is any indication, I'll need more dangerously necromantic coding practices against which to bargain my soul.

Three hours of work later, and I have successfully converted my Player to an object, referenced in all the places it needs to be, and managed to change over all my old crappy static array nonsense to the new pointers without a single error.  Eat your heart out, sensible version-protection practices.  Boy, you sure do spend a lot of time in programming correcting your own old ideas.

The only method left that relies on my location-as-array scheme is a random placement function, and then because I haven't gotten around to figuring out how Superclasses work, so I'm just brute-forcing the function.  At least it still works.

[Nadaka]

I knew even uttering that word was saying too much.

Tis' dark and blasphemous speech.

[Willfor]

This is what reflection can do for you.

Code: [Select]

        public static void PrintAllNClasses(string nameSpace)
        {
            // this is me LITERALLY GRABBING THE ENTIRE PROGRAM BY THE POINTERS
            Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
            // Now I grab every class type in the entire program and cycle through them all
            foreach (Type type in asm.GetTypes())
            {
                // I make sure that they are within the namespace I select, and then check to see what letter it starts with (after a hack job of making sure it's case insensitive
                if (type.Namespace == nameSpace && type.Name.ToUpper().StartsWith("N"))
                    Console.WriteLine(type.Name);
            }
            // BANG done
        }

Spoiler: result (click to show/hide)

[Levi]

This is what reflection can do for you.

Code: [Select]

        public static void PrintAllNClasses(string nameSpace)
        {
            // this is me LITERALLY GRABBING THE ENTIRE PROGRAM BY THE POINTERS
            Assembly asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
            // Now I grab every class type in the entire program and cycle through them all
            foreach (Type type in asm.GetTypes())
            {
                // I make sure that they are within the namespace I select, and then check to see what letter it starts with (after a hack job of making sure it's case insensitive
                if (type.Namespace == nameSpace && type.Name.ToUpper().StartsWith("N"))
                    Console.WriteLine(type.Name);
            }
            // BANG done
        }

Spoiler: result (click to show/hide)

I actually find this incredibly useful in ruby when I don't have documentation on a class and am trying to figure out what I can do with it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Code: [Select]

irb(main):016:0> String.public_instance_methods - Object.public_instance_methods

=> ["%", "select", "[]=", "<<", "each_byte", "gsub", "casecmp", "to_str", "partition", "tr_s", "empty?", "tr!", "rstrip", "*", "match", "grep", "chomp!", "+", "next!", "swapcase", "ljust", "to_i", "swapcase!", "upto", "between?", "reject","sum", "hex", "insert", "reverse!", "chop", "delete", "dump", "tr_s!", "concat", "member?", "succ", "find", "each_with_index", "strip!", "rjust", "to_f", "index", "collect", "oct", "all?", "slice", "length", "entries", "chomp", "upcase", "sub!", "squeeze", "include?", "upcase!", "crypt", "delete!", "detect", "zip", "lstrip!", "center", "<", "map", "<=>", "rindex", "any?", ">", "split", "strip", "size", "sort", "gsub!", "count", "succ!", "downcase", "min", "squeeze!", "downcase!", "intern", ">=", "next", "find_all", "<=", "each_line", "each", "rstrip!", "slice!", "sub", "replace", "inject", "tr", "reverse", "sort_by", "lstrip", "to_sym", "capitalize", "max", "chop!", "capitalize!", "scan", "[]", "unpack"]
irb(main):017:0>

[Sirus]

Well, today was my first day of Java and C. Like I expected, we're starting with the super-basics (like, what hardware is). In the Java class, I managed to bork a "Hello World" script. Which I copied from the projector that the teacher had up. Am I doomed?

[Levi]

Well, today was my first day of Java and C. Like I expected, we're starting with the super-basics (like, what hardware is). In the Java class, I managed to bork a "Hello World" script. Which I copied from the projector that the teacher had up. Am I doomed?

Nah, that is normal for the first day.    In a lot of ways the biggest struggle for most people when they are starting to learn programming isn't so much the concepts but the actual syntax.  Its a tricky thing. 

[Sirus]

That's the thing though, I'm not "just starting" to learn to program, I did it years ago. I flew half-way across the country to be in a competition (didn't do so well, but I was the only person from my state to go). This is more of a re-learning experience, and I failed the simplest program known to man.

Not just failed, but I got 7 errors in as many lines of code. Srsly?

[GlyphGryph]

For me it was the software and hardware. I figured out how to program with logic gates before I ever got a compiler to work, hah.

[Levi]

Hehe.  I wouldn't worry about it as long as you can figure out what you did wrong.

[GlyphGryph]

Also, that is /seriously/ all reflection is? I thought it was going to be some sort of dark magic, not something I used all the time. And I didn't even know what it was. Hah.

[Sirus]

Not at the moment, I think I was in shock (and I hadn't eaten anything yet). Here's hoping I'll have some progress in the next couple of weeks.

[Max White]

Eh, I tend to not use reflection that much, it becomes a bit of a broad sword when you should be using a scalpel.
Sure, you can do some cool shit, but it makes your program so damn fragile, and a lot of the time when you are making a real program, there is a better way.

[Willfor]

Yeah, one of my big realizations when I first "got" reflection was "UNLIMITED POWAAAARRRR ... but when will I ever encounter something I need to use it for? "

A search that continues to this day aside from the few scattered places where it can be useful to have.

[GlyphGryph]

I think I mostly use it for bug testing and framework level stuff - I can't recall the last time I used it with business logic. Ah... wait... I think I use it sometimes to create dynamically generated methods. But I guess that's back to framework level stuff.

[Aqizzar]

I've been liking how I've got my AI organized though.  I've got a set of AI objects like:

IdleAI, WanderAI, PatrolAI, DigAI, RunAwayAI, SeeAndAttackAI.

And each monster definition includes a list of these AI objects in a particular order.

Whenever the AI is queried for an action, it starts at the top of the list and if an AI doesn't return an action, it goes and checks the next one until it finds one that feels like doing something.

Hey Levi, if you don't mind, I'd be curious to see an example of how you have this organized.

I've built a couple functions for my mobs, so they can randomly walk around, and if they know they're next to a target (only valid target is the player right now) they "attack" (write a message right now - I'm still brainstorming for message-buffering).  I know I need to have this better arranged though, so it doesn't all just pile up in the MobObject class and I can make a clean AI system from the start.

I'm also realizing how close I am to making something I can honestly call a roguelike.  If I can "attack" the mobs and they can "attack" me then all I need now is numbers and math and then stuff will happen.  Throw in a button to make a screen to see your numbers, and it will fit the most basic possible criteria of a game.