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Newcomers AppGameKit Corner / My top ten tips on programming design

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damothegreat
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Posted: 14th Oct 2016 20:33 Edited at: 29th Jan 2017 20:17
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BatVink
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Posted: 15th Oct 2016 12:09
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Could be a useful thread

Quote: "2. Try and declare all your variables that you use throughout your project also at the beginning of the main.agc before any nitty gritty coding is made
eg,

Global
Dim
Arrays [ ]
Types"


Dim is a legacy declaration, you shouldn't use this anymore.

Quote: "4. Try to avoid "load" and "create's" functions within main game loops
eg,
CreateSprite..........
LoadSound........"


I agree with trying to avoid loading of assets. However creating sprites, sound instances etc should not be an issue. This is simply wrapping existing assets into a small packet of data.

Quote: "5. Try to avoid Loops within loops within loops - eg using of re-cursive FOR loops."

This is a good tip to be wary of, but not something that has to be avoided. You need to be aware of the implications. That is, an outer loop of 5 iterations with an inner loop of 5 iterations is 25 executions of the inner code.
But there are scenarios that require this. If I have 6 characters with 6 attributes then I need a nested loop to process all 36 attributes.
Technically this isn't recursion. Recursion is where a function calls itself.


I look forward to more tips that can be discussed and fine-tuned to help newcomers. It would be good to maintain the definitive list in your first post.
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Ortu
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Posted: 15th Oct 2016 15:20
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Avoid defining/embedding data directly in the code, load it from external sources/resources. Hard coded data is inflexible, harder to edit, and forces more recompiling.


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Posted: 15th Oct 2016 17:54
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I disagree with points 2 and 3 from the OP's post.

2) When working with multiple source files, I find it much easier and clearer to keep variable declarations at the top of the relevant source file.

and

3) Although I agree that Goto is evil, Gosub on the other hand is a respectable command with genuine advantages over functions for certain applications.

I'd like to add also that sensible variable names and comments are essential for larger/longer term projects. That, and save often, and back up your saves
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Phaelax
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Posted: 16th Oct 2016 22:00
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Quote: "Dim is a legacy declaration, you shouldn't use this anymore."

It is? What's the alternative for declaring arrays in agk then?

Quote: "When working with multiple source files, I find it much easier and clearer to keep variable declarations at the top of the relevant source file."

Agreed. Afterall the whole reason I use multiple files to keep a modular design. No sense in declaring vars in one file if you only see them in code in another file.

"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
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BatVink
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Posted: 17th Oct 2016 11:18
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Quote: "What's the alternative for declaring arrays in agk then?"


global myArray as string[3]
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Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur
TutCity is being rebuilt
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Carharttguy
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Posted: 24th Oct 2016 14:40
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Quote: "
3) Although I agree that Goto is evil, Gosub on the other hand is a respectable command with genuine advantages over functions for certain applications."


Can you please give an example where Gosub has genuine advantages over functions?
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BatVink
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Posted: 24th Oct 2016 17:14
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I believe that gosubs just jump to another place on the heap, whereas a function needs to add itself to the stack each time you call it.
Having said that, I always use functions and never use gosubs. I like my code to be readable, self-contained and portable between projects.
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Ortu
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Posted: 24th Oct 2016 17:18
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Only case I can think of is to access many non global, top level scope variables (ie: too many to pass and return from a function). Not a common thing.


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Carharttguy
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Posted: 24th Oct 2016 18:48
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Ortu wrote: "
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Only case I can think of is to access many non global, top level scope variables (ie: too many to pass and return from a function). Not a common thing. "


If your function expects more than 3 parameters, something is probably wrong with the function. It's probably doing to much.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 24th Oct 2016 23:47
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I use gosubs a lot. It helps me organize large chunks of code that don't need to be functions.

"I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended." - Linus Torvalds
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damothegreat
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Posted: 28th Oct 2016 13:27 Edited at: 29th Jan 2017 20:17
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Posted: 28th Oct 2016 22:16
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@damothegreat
Not programming advice, but forum advice really...



@Carharttguy
All my included files are made up like this



Then, when I include the file, I simply add these couple of lines near the top of the main.agc file



This allows me to keep all the variables in the scope of the main loop (Avoiding nasty nasty globals), and keep all the declarations and functions associated to a single agc file.
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Ortu
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Posted: 29th Oct 2016 02:00
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@Prof

My include modules are structured and handled almost exactly the same way


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BatVink
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Posted: 29th Oct 2016 22:57
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This:



is functionally the same as this:

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Ortu
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Posted: 30th Oct 2016 01:42
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Interesting, dbp doesn't have #insert. Does it just inject any code outside of a function into the point of the insert?

Do you need handling for the case of multiple modules each calling the same insert module?

What if you wanted to reinitialize a module later, wouldn't you still need to wrap the initialization into a callable routine?


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BatVink
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Posted: 30th Oct 2016 08:42
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It is the equivalent of copy and paste. It just drops whatever is in the file into that position in the code. You could do something bizarre like this and it would work...




where codesnippet.txt is just a line of code...



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Posted: 6th Nov 2016 12:40
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@BatVink:
Nice, You learn something new every day.
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