[Sorry if this is a duplicate, having trouble with mail]
(It's amazing how much time can be wasted when one's Internet Service
Provider goes out of business and you have to switch to another one -
especially with a DSL line, and even more so if you have your own
domain name, but I digress ...)
The basic approach that I would take would be to create a single
"object manager object". That is, if you want to create a bunch of
Widget (objects), then have a WidgetMgr object who is responsible for
maintaining the list.
From your sample code, I don't understand the relationship as far as
what is a parent script and what is a behavior. I also don't have a
clue as to what you want each of these objects to do - that is, what
are the object's handlers - basically what should the objects be
able to do. Do you need to "address" individual objects, or would
you be broadcasting messages to all at the same time.
Anyway, here's a snippet of an approach (untested). The Widget
object manager is responsible for creating any and all Widget
objects, and internally, it does this by maintaining a list of object
references to all Widget objects that it has created.
-- WidgetMgr parent script
property ploWidgets -- property which is a list of object references
to Widget objects
on new me
ploWidgets = []
return me
end
on mCreateNewWidget me, [any parameters you might want to pass when
you create a Widget]
-- First create the widget object
oWidget = new(script "Widget", [any parameters you might want to
pass when you create a Widget])
-- Next, add this object reference to the list
append(ploWidgets, oWidget)
-- If the "thing" that asked to create the object needs the object
reference back,
-- return it, if not, don't return anything
return oWidget
end
on mDoSomethingToAllWidgets me
repeat with oWidget in ploWidgets
oWidget.mDoSomething()
end repeat
-- The above could be done with a "call" statement if you wish
end
And the Widget script is very basic
on new me, [any parameters you might want to set ...]
-- any initialization code
return me
end
on mDoSomething me
-- Whatever
end
The WidgetMgr probably needs to be a global, if you want it to hang
around for a long time. Something like this:
global goWidgetMgr -- global object, Widget Manager
on startMovie
goWidgetMgr = new(script "WidgetMgr")
end
on stopMovie
goWidgetMgr.mCleanUp() -- give the WidgetMgr a chance to clean itself up
goWidgetMgr = VOID -- throw away the instance variable
end
.. then the WidgetMgr needs a cleanup handler, something like this:
on mCleanUp me
nWidgets = count(ploWidgets)
repeat with i = 1 to nWidgets
oWidget = ploWidgets[i]
oWidget.mCleanUp() -- allow each widget to clean itself up
ploWidgets[i] = VOID
end repeat
end
And the Widget script needs to have:
on mCleanUp me
-- clean up any objects that it may have created
end
If this doesn't make much sense, you can read more at:
http://www.furrypants.com/loope
Irv
PS: Using "data cast members" for this type of storage is not the
right thing to do since object references are really memory
addresses, and are subject to change each time you run your program.
--
Lingo / Director / Shockwave development for all occasions.
(Home-made Lingo cooked up fresh every day just for you.)
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