Fields : Types vs 'normal'

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tonyg

(Posted 2006) [#1]

What are the pros/cons of doing this :

Type ttest1
	Field pos:tvector2d = tvector2d.create()
End Type
Type tvector2d
	Field x:Float=100.0
	Field y:Float=100.0
	Function create:tvector2d()
		Return New tvector2d
	End Function	
End Type

as opposed to this :

Type ttest2
	Field posx:Float = 100.0
	Field posy:Float = 100.0
End Type
temp1:ttest1 = New ttest1

Dreamora

(Posted 2006) [#2]

Pro:

You could add vector functionality to the vector type. This would otherwise need to be external functions which isn't as clean as objects.

Con: you have a little overhead due to the "object" part.

Way one needs a little prethinking:

1. You need pooling. Without it you will kill your app most likely (there is a very usefull thread somewhere on the boards on optimizing)

2. Its highly suggested to implement 2 versions of all operations. an "in-situ" version (that changes the object itself) and a return version that returns a resulting vector which holds the data of the operation.
Reason here is that there are cases where you need a result and cases where you want to modify the current. (for example normalize is such a functionality that needs both normally. once where the vector itself is changed and once where you need the normalized vector for vector projection and the like)

H&K	(Posted 2006) [#3]

I tend to add another level, wereby the function create (when given parameters), then calls the method set, passing the parrameters.