[DM-dev] Properties object status

[Stephan B. <st...@wa...>]

The DMProperties object (replaces 'config object') is now in CVS and can load 
and save itself to/from text or to/from another DMProperties object. What 
this means, is, we can have an ini file like this one:

andthisone=is at the front of the list
bool_true=false
bool_words=yesireebob
double=2.315680
eat=this
one=1
string=hey
xxx=in the middle
;comment
foostr=bar
fooint=42
;comment2
#comment3
crawler.prop1=yes
crawler.foostr=bar
crawler.fooint=42

And then read it in into two different properties objects, like this:
(assume for a moment that Crawler subclass DMProperties!)

int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{

    string filename = argv[1] ? argv[1] : "my.dungeoninfo";
    DMProperties file( filename, true );
    if( ! file.load() ) exit( 666 );
    //file.toCerr();
    DMProperties crawler( "crawler" );
    crawler.loadFromProperties( file );
    crawler.toCerr( false );
    exit( 0 );
}

This prints out the following:
<<< crawler: >>>
fuckoff=yes maza
foostr=bar
fooint=42
>>> :crawler <<<

Notice how it only contains keys from our config file which started with this 
object's name ("crawler"). This alllows us to store any number of objects in 
the object. Their file output could look like this:

crawler.1.prop1=yes
crawler.1.foostr=bar
crawler.1.fooint=42
crawler.2.prop1=eat this
crawler.2.foostr=hello, world
crawler.2.fooint=21

These could be programatically created with this code:

DMProperties c;
c = DMProperties( "crawler.1" );
c.set( "foostr", "hello, world" );
...

One good question is:
How do you read them back, if you don't know what their names are?

There are two options:

First:
We cheat a little: we have the user tell us:

crawlers=1 2
or:
crawlers=bill, ted, 1-10

Then we create DMProperties objects with those names and populate them. Items 
not listed like this are effectively "commented out" of the config data. But 
the config reader still keeps them in pure text form, and they will be 
written back out to the file when it is saved, so no data is lost. This gives 
a lot of room for flexibility in testing out changes to your config files. 
But, yes, it is a slight hassle if you're creating them by hand.

Second:

We make some rules regarding the naming of objects, and then do something 
like this with the naming:

objectype.name.property=val

Then, when someone calls:
DMPropertiesList *DMProperties::getObjects( "objecttype" );
we will instantiate all objects of that type (they're all just DMProperties 
with different names, after all), set all of it's properties, and give back a 
list of them. That function is not yet implemented by the way.

Number 2 sounds like the way to go, so that's what I'm gonna work on next. 
Tomorrow night, anyway.


----- Stephan Beal - st...@wa...
http://qub.sourceforge.net  -  http://stephan.rootonfire.org
http://dungeonmaker.sourceforge.net
"Now I'm not normally the kind of person who likes to trespass, but
sometimes you just find yourself over the line." -- Bob Dylan