AutoHotkey Community

[animeaime]

I've been hearing murmurs to the effect that no one has a clue how to use the Class library. To be honest, I have no idea where to start explaining it. The info on the site reflects the question I would have. If your question is unanswered there, PLEASE bring it up here (or PM me). I mean, I can't make promises on how fast I'll update the site, but I'll post here quickly. I have a weird "phobia" with writing docs - they take FOREVER to write.

I'm a programmer, so the questions I would ask may be different than the ones you have. Since my background and yours are different, please share your questions. I love keeping busy - mainly writing code. I only break from code to write docs when I feel I have something worthy - and even then it's difficult not to code - it's an addiction .

In other words, I rely greatly on feedback to bring "focus" to my work. I have way to many projects that I'm working on, so I prioritize based on feedback. When writing long docs, I get bored - so they take a while for me to write. However, if you ask me questions, I can easily build an FAQ by combining posts into a meaningful format.

Thus, instead of banging your head against the wall, please post any questions here. This project is my pride and joy as an OOP programmer. I personally can no longer program in non-OOP form because of my love for OOP. Now, I don't expect you all to be OOP manics like me, but this mania of mine means that I want this project to keep growing - your input dictates where it goes. I leave it up to you.
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As always, if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Add OOP to your scripts via the Class Library. Check out my scripts.

[rulfzid]

[BoBo³]

I fully agree on what you're saying about the way (semi)-noobs are feeling about DllCall(), RegEx...(), Ternary Operators, VarSetCapacity, Bitshift&COM-Voodoo.

Let's call it the 'Puffer-Fish-Syndrom'. Someone is telling you about (SEAN, [VxE], <your name here>, ...] that super-dupper-tasty kinda thing, while offering you the full equipment to prepare one on your own. Unfortunately without a (semi)fool-prove advisory. You're simply feeling lost. Of course you won't die if you're not able to handle OOP - but it feels like starving in front of a tasty Pizza, or <your favourite food here>.

Btw, sinkfaze's RegEx-Tut (the one I kept in mind, beside others) gives a nice example how to set up something a noob should be able to deal with.

[animeaime]

OK, so if I'm hearing this right, there are more questions about OOP, than the Class library, per se. Did I understand correctly? If so, as mentioned, there are tons of "intros to OOP" on the web. I will find some and add them to the website.

Thanks for the input - it's those kind of things I easily overlook. I didn't even think that the questions on the Class library would be more questions on OOP, in general.


I'm going to add a section that shows how to "convert" from traditional OOP to AHK OOP. This way, yal can research OOP to your hearts content (I'll provide some links), and then the website will show how to convert from standard OOP to AHK OOP - since there are some subtle syntax related differences.

There would be examples of constructors, destructors, interfaces (which are done, just need to whip up an example of its use), etc. For each OOP concept, there would be the "AHK version" of the same code - similar to what I've seen on wiki when it shows the same code in several programming languages.
_________________
As always, if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Add OOP to your scripts via the Class Library. Check out my scripts.

[animeaime]

I just thought of this while writing the intro to OOP tutorial, would it be useful to have a script that would convert from traditional OOP to AHK OOP? This would allow programming in a mix of traditional OOP and AHK OOP, and then convert the code to AHK OOP.

You would run the converter, specify the AHK to convert, and it would convert each traditional OOP statement to the equivalent AHK OOP statement.

There would be a gui which would prompt for each replacement. It would show the line(s) as seen in the code, and below it would show the replacement. Before replacing it, you could modify it as needed. Or, you could skip it, if it shouldn't be converted.


For example,

[rulfzid]

Very interesting. I like it and think it could be very useful.

In fact, how about the following (now it's my turn to throw an idea out there ):

Instead of programming in what you call a "mix" of OOP and AHK OOP, you could write some basic class specs in a markup language (ini, json, xml).

Take your Rectangle class for example:

[rulfzid]

Another question - if I use a class in a script, must I destroy the object before the script exits, or will that memory automatically be cleared up?

[animeaime]

[animeaime]

[rulfzid]

[animeaime]

[bmcclure]

This thread has been too quiet with my move to Portland

I'm making several Gui-related classes. Right now I'm working on the core Gui class that sort of wraps the AHK Gui command, while providing flexibility in being able to create and store a Gui window object without ever actually creating the window (although you can create it at the same time, or whenever). If you use the GuiManager class to manage Gui objects, it'll take care of finding and assigning an available GuiNum to each one as necessary, cleaning everything up as needed, effectively managing an unlimited number of windows.

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm storing two dictionaries, one for enableOptions (Gui options with a + sign) and one for disableOptions (Gui options with a - sign). I don't know what options the user is going to specify in either dictionary.

I need to find a way to either:
- Loop through the dictionary by an arbitrary index (the first key, the second key, etc) along with a way to look up the key name of an index, or
- have a Dictionary_getKeys() command that returns an array or vector of all keys in the dictionary

Are either of these either already possible or simple to implement?

Edit:
FYI, found a neat use for the _constant() function in my GuiManager class.

Each GuiManager has a GuiNums property, which is an array of references to guis associated with guinums (1-99).

Then, the GuiManager class has a guiNums constant (read/write), which is another array of guinums referencing which GuiManager object is using which guinum.

In this way, I can automatically trace back calls such as GuiClose, GuiSize, etc. to a specific GuiManager, and a specific Gui object, with just a GuiNum value, and without having to add anything special to the gui itself to identify it.

So now even more-so than before, you can use an unlimited number of GuiManagers to manage an unlimited number of guis (of course, it wouldn't make sense to have more than 99 guimanagers, or anywhere near that. usually you will only need 1 to manage all your windows)

Edit2:
Interestingly, using the Gui class I can now clone a Gui (thanks to you ). So I made a helper function in GuiManager that clones a Gui and gives it a new GuiNum... simple but amazingly effective You can make a "template" Gui for your windows that you never actually display, but clone as the base for all other windows.
_________________
Ben

My Trac projects
My Wiki
[Broken] - My music

[animeaime]

Thanks for the positive feedback - always glad to hear how the class library is helping to enhance the AHK experience.


Also, thanks for "waking me up". I got distracted and completely forgot I haven't finished the Interfaces yet. Right now in the process of adding the final tweaks, and I'll have that uploaded "soon".

As for bmmclure's request, I added a getKeys function to both Dictionary and SDictionary. Download the updated zip. I also modified the examples for Dictionary and SDictionary (located in the "Class Examples" subfolder) with an example of the getKeys function.

The syntax is as follows:

[bmcclure]

Thanks for all of your development work so far. It has helped leaps and bounds with my major in-development scripts, and now I just write classes all the time instead of libraries. It's simple, neat, and allows me to keep everything organized and OO.

Just wanted to clarify--are you actively working in Interfaces, or will it be a while, given that you're not working much on this anymore? It's one of the final pieces I think I will need to really get my DOM implementation off the ground, so I'm just checking if I should find a workaround or how soon "soon" might be

Testing out SDictionary_getKeys now; sounds like it will be perfect for my needs.

Anyway, good luck with the dream project; hopefully the Class library helps as much there as it has in my projects so far.

Thanks again!
_________________
Ben

My Trac projects
My Wiki
[Broken] - My music

[animeaime]