[APBeta] Scripting question

[Jeff Young]

Excellent stuff, Robin.  I had managed to get classes working, but wasn't aware of structures or dictionaries.  I'll have to spend some time at the link you provided once I have some to spare.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: apbeta-bounces at lists.astroplanner.net [mailto:apbeta-bounces at lists.astroplanner.net] On Behalf Of
> RPEHLM
> Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 8:40 AM
> To: AstroPlanner Beta Testers
> Subject: Re: [APBeta] Scripting question
> 
> Classes are really good for this sort of thing; use them a lot myself.
> Don't forget you can use the 'public' or 'private' prefix to control the
> scope (visibility) of stuff inside your class.  It's certainly possible
> to build arrays of classes.
> 
> Also useful are structures (can only be used inside a class or module); e.g.
> 
> public structure Blah
>     flag as boolean
>     index as integer
>     name as string*20
> end stucture
> 
> Note the *20 for the string declaration.  Strings in structures are
> fixed length and padded with ASCII 0, so Len() will always return 20 in
> this particular case.  Due to the way structures are implemented in
> RealBasic they cannot contain any data types whose length can vary.  For
> example 'a() as string' is out
> 
> The new Dictionary class is really really useful.  You can build a
> dictionary where the Value holds a structure, an array, or a class, or
> even an array of classes or structures (haven't tried OLEObjects yet!
> :-D).  One interesting feature of dictionaries of structures is that
> dictionary.value(key) will return the first element of the structure.
> Not sure if this is a RealSoftware bug or feature though :)
> 
> I have been trying to use enums.  So far I can declare them but have not
> been able to use them.
> 
> The SQL class offers a whole new world of data storage and retrival
> possibilities.  I have only just started looking at this but it appears
> to be really amazing.  One of the best features is the ability to create
> a database in memory; useful for short term storage.
> 
> A useful resource for APScript are the RealBasic Language Reference
> (RBLR) and User Guides (RBUG).  (<http://www.realsoftware.com/download>)
> and scroll down to the 'Individual Files' section.  Your first stop
> should be the RBScript class section in the RBLR.  You do have to employ
> some trial and error to find out what will and what won't work in a
> script.  This is where the 'Check for Errors' button is really useful!
> 
> Another useful new class is RegEx.  Haven't used it much yet but it
> should make checking user input or analysing file content a lot easier.
> 
> Hope this helps
> Robin
> 
> Paul Rodman wrote:
> >
> > On Apr 18, 2009, at 02:35 PM, Michael Portuesi wrote:
> >
> >> Does the AP scripting language allow one to create objects from
> >> within a script?
> >
> >
> >> The number of global variables in my charts script frightens me, as
> >> does the number of parameters I have to pass to each of the functions
> >> within the script.  I'd like to create an object to hold all these
> >> values, or perhaps a hash table that will store this blob of
> >> information as a set of named attributes.
> >>
> >> Without these sorts of language tools, it becomes difficult to build
> >> any sort of large-scale scripts inside AstroPlanner.  (I realize this
> >> is directed at the compiler vendor, not you, but I had to vent).
> >
> > Yes, it does (V1 and V2 for that matter)
> >
> > e.g.
> >
> > class MyClass
> >   dim property1 as integer
> >   dim property2 as string
> >
> >   sub Constructor()
> >      property1=77
> >      property2="Sunset Strip"
> >
> >   function Squodge() as string
> >     return str(property1) + " " + property2
> >   end function
> > end class
> >
> > sub main()
> >   dim a as MyClass
> >
> >   a = new MyClass
> >   print a.Squodge
> > end sub
> >
> >
> > and so on.
> >
> > I use a lot of classes in the 10,000+ line framework which is
> > prepended to each script (See Script->Framework Reference).
> >
> > Note that in 2.0b34 I introduced a Dictionary class that allows you to
> > set up a "hash table" for storing and retrieving stuff.
> >
> > e.g.
> >
> > dim d as new Dictionary
> >
> > d.Value("Param1") = 77
> > d.Value(9912) = "Whatever"
> >
> > if d.HasKey(9912) then print d.Value(9912)
> >
> > If you'd like a copy of the Framework source code for ideas, I can
> > provide it via personal e-mail.
> >
> > Paul R.
> >
> >
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> >
> >
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