Create a list of tasks to do in Lua

Question

I'm creating a turn-based game in Gideros (which uses Lua) and I'm running into a problem of recording the events of each actor. I want the player to be able to set a path, direction, and fire event for every actor they control. I had an idea of using multidimensional arrays like

TaskList = { 1 = { "MoveTo", {3,5} }, 
             2 = { "AimTo", {5,2} }, 
             3 = { "Fire" }, 
             4 = { "MoveTo", {23,21} }

however that seemed like an awfully annoying and inefficient way to do it. Is there any obviously better way? Thanks.

Well, I just thought there would be a better way. It seems rather verbose. — Taslem, Aug 12 '13 at 17:02
Well you can omit the `1 =`, `2 =` etc as those are implied. Honestly, I would be shooting for a bit more verbose, such as `TaskList = { { action="MoveTo", location={3,5} }, ...` — cdhowie, Aug 12 '13 at 17:03
Ahh, that makes it a lot more digestible. I'll move towards that. Thanks for the help. — Taslem, Aug 12 '13 at 17:06

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 12 '13 at 17:09

I would suggest the following:

Remove 1 =, 2 =, etc. This is implied with "array" initialization syntax.
Use whitespace to improve readability.
Consider being more verbose in the action tables by using names instead of indexes. (This will also make the structure more future-proof, as you can add/remove support for certain attributes without having to change the index where each attribute exists.)

For example:

TaskList = {
    { action="MoveTo", location={3,5} },
    { action="AimTo",  location={5,2} },
    { action="Fire" },
    { action="MoveTo", location={23,21} }
}

Actually `{ 1 = x }` is not even valid Lua. `{ [1] = x }` is the correct explicit syntax. — catwell, Aug 13 '13 at 08:50

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 13 '13 at 13:26

What about constructing your array through function calls?

function MoveTo( a, b ) return { action="MoveTo", location={ a, b } } end
function AimTo( a, b ) return { action="AimTo", location={ a, b } } end
function Fire() return { action="Fire" } end

TaskList = { MoveTo( 3, 5 ),
             AimTo( 5, 2 ), 
             Fire(),
             MoveTo( 23, 21 ) }

Create a list of tasks to do in Lua

2 Answers2