[DM-dev] I've got it: the best of both models...

[Stephan B. <ste...@ei...>]

We can have our cake and eat it, too...

DungeonElement is going to stay completely heirarchical. I
can use these objects in QUB to make a visual dungeon
editor. But...
For DM I'm adding a Dungeon object, which has methods
similar to:

addRoom( x,y,w,h, doorSide, doorX=-1, doorY=-1, doorWidth=2
)
// doorSide = N/S/E/W
// (-1 == try to center it based off of the doorSide)

addWall( x, y, w, h )
// like addRoom(), but makes a filled-in area

addArea( x, y, w, h, square_type )
// the main function which most other addXXX()'s use to do
their work.


The Dungeon object will be used as the only "gateway" into
the DungeonElement object, and the Dungeon user will never
see DungeonElement. Dungeon's structure will enforce that a
Dungeon:
a) cannot be made out of a hierarchical structure.
b) is in "auto-commit" mode. What I mean by that is that
once a user calls addRoom(), he cannot go back and delete
that room. It will render itself to a grid as the functions
are called, instead of via a render() function.

The internal implementation of Dungeon will use
DungeonElements, simply because I've already got the list
management and file output code written ;). The libDM user
won't ever know that, though. Going through the Dungeon
object enforces that there won't be a hierarchy of objects,
since those have grief when dealing with a flat input/output
source. Basically it will have to use DungeonElements unless
I also want to write the output file data as addXXX() is
called. Otherwise I won't be able to construct a list of
rooms/walls/doors to save! DungeonElement already has the
list-maintenance code needed for that, also, so there's no
reason not to use them, as long as the user is shielded from
having access to them. This is also future-compatible: in
the case that I come up with some really brilliant ;) way of
saving/loading hierarchies from flat files, I'll re-add the
hierarchy support to libDM to give it that flexibility.

:)

----- Stephan Beal - st...@wa...
http://qub.sourceforge.net - http://gwm.rootonfire.org
http://byoo.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