Scripting decisions

[Barry Gian James]

Regarding the game's scripting engine, we have to make a few essential and deeply effecting decisions regarding the interface for some (or all) imported functions. Some functionality are by default rendered as functions:

• functions that manipulate the script's command line arguments
• this_player(), this_room(), this_item()
  
• communication functionality
• tell(ch.id,"hello there")

Some are by default rendered through globally imported objects:

• QuestMgr.AddQuest(id,"A Trifle","a_trifle")
• cmd = Commands.GetCommand("look")
• TimedEventQueue.AddEvent(e)

While others could be configured as either way:

• new_item = create_item("a_new_item") -or- new_item = root.create_item("a_new_item")
• the_target = get_npc(id) -or- the_target = root.get_npc(id)

Which way seems best/most intuitive/most efficient?


Object Handles by Construction or Factory

The next question is whether an object reference should be created through a class constructor syntax or through a factory function. Take the following two examples:

ch = Character(id)
-or-
ch = get_character(id) -or- ch = root.get_character(id)

Which method here seems best?

Post your thoughts, ideas, comments, or suggestions if you have any on these subjects.

Cheers!
-gian