Right way to type as "Any" - godot

Let's say I'm using gdscript static typing and for one function parameter I don't know in advance what I'm going to get. That's what typing.Any is for in python. How do I do it with gdscript?
It seems that Variant is not a valid type and I'm not sure about using Object for that purpose (since it could be a built-in)
edit
Leaving the type blank obviously works, but the docs has a specific section called typed-or-dynamic-stick-to-one-style, and since we're already kinda short on good practices using gdscript I'd rather find another way
Any idea?

As of Godot 3.2, GDScript does not feature a Variant or any type hint yet. However, you can still use the Object type hint if you expect a variable to hold any object (or null, as Object is nullable by design). Object may not hold primitive types like int or bool though.
Therefore, you should just leave out the type hint for now.

Related

NamedTuple - сhecking types of fields at runtime

Is there a neat solution to raise an error if a value is passed to the NamedTuple field that does not match the declared type?
In this example, I intentionally passed page_count str instead of int. And the script will work on passing the erroneous value forward.
(I understand that linter will draw your attention to the error, but I encountered this in a case where NamedTuple fields were filled in by a function getting values from config file).
I could check the type of each value with a condition, but it doesn't look really clean. Any ideas? Thanks.
from typing import NamedTuple
class ParserParams(NamedTuple):
api_url: str
page_count: int
timeout: float
parser_params = ParserParams(
api_url='some_url',
page_count='3',
timeout=10.0,
)
By design, Python is a dynamically typed language which means any value can be assigned to any variable. Typing is only supported as hints - the errors might be highlighted in your IDE, but they do not enforce anything.
This means that if you need type checking you have to implement it yourself. On the upside, this can probably be automated, i.e. implemented only once instead of separately for every field. However, NamedTuple does not provide such checking out of the box.

squeak(smalltallk) how to 'inject' string into string

I'm writing a class named "MyObject".
one of the class methods is:
addTo: aCodeString assertType: aTypeCollection
when the method is called with aCodeString, I want to add (in runtime) a new method to "MyObject" class which aCodeString is it's source code and inject type checking code into the source code.
for example, if I call addTo: assertType: like that:
a := MyObject new.
a addTo: 'foo: a boo:b baz: c
^(a*b+c)'
assertType: #(SmallInteger SmallInteger SmallInteger).
I expect that I could write later:
answer := (a foo: 2 boo: 5 baz: 10).
and get 20 in answer.
and if I write:
a foo: 'someString' boo: 5 baz: 10.
I get the proper message because 'someString' is not a SmallInteger.
I know how to write the type checking code, and I know that to add the method to the class in runtime I can use 'compile' method from Behavior class.
the problem is that I want to add the type checking code inside the source code.
I'm not really familiar with all of squeak classes so I'm not sure if I rather edit the aCodeString as a string inside addTo: assertType: and then use compile: (and I don't know how to do so), or that there is a way to inject code to an existing method in Behavior class or other squeak class.
so basically, what I'm asking is how can I inject string into an existing string or to inject code into an existing method.
There are many ways you could achieve such type checking...
The one you propose is to modify the source code (a String) so as to insert additional pre-condition type checks.
The key point with this approach is that you will have to insert the type checking at the right place. That means somehow parsing the original source (or at least the selector and arguments) so as to find its exact span (and the argument names).
See method initPattern:return: in Parser and its senders. You will find quite low level (not most beautiful) code that feed the block (passed thru return: keyword) with sap an Array of 3 objects: the method selector, the method arguments and the method precedence (a code telling if the method is connected to unary, binary or keyword message). From there, you'll get enough material for achieving source code manipulation (insert a string into another with copyReplace:from:to:with:).
Do not hesitate to write small snippets of code and execute in the Debugger (select code to debug, then use debug it menu or ALT+Shift+D). Also use the inspectors extensively to gain more insight on how things work!
Another solution is to parse the whole Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) of the source code, and manipulate that AST to insert the type checks. Normally, the Parser builds the AST, so observe how it works. From the modified AST, you can then generate new CompiledMethod (the bytecode instructions) and install it in methodDictionary - see the source code of compile: and follow the message sent until you discover generateMethodFromNode:trailer:. This is a bit more involved, and has a bad side effect that the source code is now not in phase with generated code, which might become a problem once you want to debug the method (fortunately, Squeak can used decompiled code in place of source code!).
Last, you can also arrange to have an alternate compiler and parser for some of your classes (see compilerClass and/or parserClass). The alternate TypeHintParser would accept modified syntax with the type hints in source code (once upon a time, it was implemented with type hints following the args inside angle brackets foo: x <Integer> bar: y <Number>). And the alternate TypeHintCompiler would arrange to compile preconditions automatically given those type hints. Since you will then be very advanced in Squeak, you will also create special mapping between source code index and bytecodes so as to have sane debugger and even special Decompiler class that could recognize the precondition type checks and transform them back to type hints just in case.
My advice would be to start with the first approach that you are proposing.
EDIT
I forgot to say, there is yet another way, but it is currently available in Pharo rather than Squeak: Pharo compiler (named OpalCompiler) does reify the bytecode instructions as objects (class names beginning with IR) in the generation phase. So it is also possible to directly manipulate the bytecode instructions by proper hacking at this stage... I'm pretty sure that we can find examples of usage. Probably the most advanced technic.

Why is String::find not a method on &str?

I recently noticed that String::find is actually a method on an owned String.
But I can't see why it wouldn't just be a method on &str instead, making it useful in more cases (and still being just as useful for String). Am I missing a reason for why it's like this, or is it just a historical accident?
Apparently, the documentation confused you. This method is listed under this section:
So it is not even implemented for String, but indeed just for &str.
Actually it's only available for String because it Derefs to str:
Methods from Deref<Target=str>
You won't find it in the source for String, but in the source for str.
Actually... you are wrong: it is not a String method.
What you are looking at is str::find.
It just so happens that the Rust documentation automatically includes on the String page the methods brought in by the fact that String implements Deref<Target=str> as can be seen here.
Why does the documentation includes the methods that can be called on the target of Deref?
Because you can actually call them directly on a String object, since the compiler will automatically follow Deref if it does not find the method you are calling, recursively.

Using default function parameters on native

A haxe function has some parameters whose default values I'd like to use, so I don't need to import anything (they're basic types underneath). If they were last in the parameter order, I could get away with just not including them. But they're first, before some defaults I do want to override.
I'm not allowed to null them on native. _ doesn't compile (I don't think it's meant for this context.) Am I forced to import and copy the defaults in verbatim, or is there another way?
I tried .bind(_, ...)() but that gives Usage of _ is not supported for optional non-nullable arguments.
That error comes from the argument having a non-nullable type (Int, Float or Bool on a static target). If this function is part of your code and not some library, you could just make it nullable with Null<T> or ?.
As long as the arguments are nullable, Haxe also allows you to simply skip them if they are distuingishable (i.e. the type of the value passed must be different from the one(s) you want to skip). This means you don't have to use bind() or explicitly pass null. See the fourth example on the manual's Optional Arguments page.
If making the arguments nullable isn't an option for you in this particular case, you're probably going to have to copy the defaults (although I'm sure it's possible to come up with a clever macro solution for this).

Is there any way to interpolate colors when using a structure grid in VTK?

I want to make a color map on vtkstructuredgrid and I need the colors to be interpolated between cells. The other option is using point data but when ever I use
structuredgrid->PointData()->SetScalars(Floatarray);
it says I cant have a pointer to a incomplete class type.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Your approach should work...
However, PointData is not a method, for the vtkStructuredGrid class: you should avoid (), and that's the reason for the error (Pointer to incomplete class type is not allowed).
Moreover, PointData is protected, in the "standard" definition of vtkStructuredGrid, and you should derive the entire class to access it from your code.
Before trying that, by the way, can you try with
structuredgrid->GetPointData()->SetScalars(Floatarray);
?
It should work too (not sure about the parameter type passed to SetScalar(), BTW).

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