I'd suggest taking a look at the set of tutorials @
http://www.consideropen.com/blog/2008/08/30-days-of-mootools-12-tutorials-day-1-intro-to-the-library/
They have some great info on everything from basic syntax to building
MooTools classes.
As for your specific question:
The slides[] on line 13 is an instance variable that just sets up
this.slides as an empty array. This is just to ensure that even an
empty class has an empty slides array instead of an undefined slides[]
variable. The slides[] in line 4 is part of the Options functionality
of MooTools classes. It's actually another slides variable that lives
in "this.options.slides" instead of "this.slides".
It's there because class which implement Options let you initialize
them like this:
var mySlideshow = new SimpleSlideShowDemo({
slides: [slide1, slide2, slide3]
});
Very briefly, when the class is initialized, the statement
"this.setOptions(options);" takes the options you passed in and
replaces the default values you see in the Options instance variable.
So if you use my example above, this.options.slides goes from an empty
array to the array I passed containing all the slides. Then, the
statement "this.addSlides(this.options.slides);" adds the slides from
the this.options.slides array to the array this.slides in the format
required by the slideshow (You can see the code for addSlides in step
3).
On Mar 13, 11:53 pm, rpflo <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hey folks,
>
> I just started programming (both PHP and javascript) less than a year
> ago and have been able to cook up some stuff that impresses me, and
> sometimes my wife. But at the moment everything I do in mootools is
> pretty much something like this:
>
> $('something').addEvent('click',function(){
> // Do some stuff with other selectors and unmanageable code
>
> });
>
> ... and then a lot of copy/pasting of the same code and then just
> tweaking the selectors or adding a slight change.
>
> I'll create functions for stuff that I use throughout an application
> to avoid repetition, but seriously, there's a better way and I think
> I'm ready to figure it out. But I look at the stuff I create and
> there's a voice saying my head "~Ryan ... you should just have a class
> for this and save yourself tons of code~" and then I feel horrible
> that my subconscious mocks me.
>
> I think I understand what a class is, and for the most part how to use
> one (after all, pretty much everything in mootools is a class).
> However, the mootools docs don't help. I'll never have a cat named
> Micia in real life, let alone a web app.
>
> I've tried dissecting other people's classes but when I look at the
> code and try to tweak it there are strange pieces that don't make
> sense to me and don't look very "moo"-ey. The only javascript I
> really know is mootools: "raw" javascript sticks out like a sore thumb
> and my brain goes to mush.
>
> I visited clientcide's "How to write a mootools Class"
> athttp://www.mootorial.com/wiki/mootorial/09-howtowriteamootoolsclass
> but even then it's a little over my head. (i.e. on step two there's
> slides[] on line 4 and slides[] on line 13. Why?)
>
> I'm going to keep poking that but in the meantime I'm looking for some
> pointers and resources online. Maybe even if somebody is willing to
> let me send you my code, that I think ought to be a class, and then
> help me write one or two.
>
> Thanks so much!
