Is it possible to assign new variables to an object from outside the object?

ID:1691309
 
Oct 2 2014, 9:47 am
(See the best response by Kaiochao.)
I'm implementing a 'genetics' system, where every living thing is composed of blocks(datums)

How i want to do it, is when the event is called, have the genomes themselves add new variables to the mob.

So rather than in:

mob/whatever
    var/skintone


I want to:

datum/genome
    whatever.skintone


Keep in mind, skintone is not an already defined variable for the mob, i want to define it from the datum.

How can i do this?
Oct 2 2014, 9:56 am
You can't add or remove variables because they exist and are checked at compile-time. At the cost of compile validation, you can use an associative list, which does allow you to add keys (list(key1 = value1, key2 = value2, ...)) on the fly.
data // starting a datum with datum/ is unnecessary
    var data[0]

// ...
var data/d = new
d.data["skintone"] = some_value

world << d.data["skintone"]
Oct 2 2014, 10:51 am
I THINK i get it? Are you saying i should assign the variable to the datum, and have the mob reference the datum for the values?

The idea is that if you dont have a particular genome, say skintone, The others will be buggy (intentional.) So if you removed the skintone, They wouldnt have a skintone variable. If you removed the 'liver' they wouldnt have liver stuff, etc.
Oct 2 2014, 12:18 pm
In response to Nullbear
You're asking for a list.
var genomes[0]
genomes += "skintone"
// now genomes contains "skintone"

genomes += "liver"
// now genomes contains "liver"


If you want these parts to be associated to some value, as if it were a variable, you'd do that like so:
genomes["skintone"] = some_value
genomes["liver"] = some_other_value

// now genomes contains a skintone key that has the value some_value
// and a liver key that has the value some_other_value


It's similar to variables in that you can get/set them.
var data[0]
data[key] = value // adds 'key' to 'data' and associates it to 'value'
return data[key] // returns 'value'

// instead of
data
    var key = value

var data/data = new
data.key = value
return data.key
Oct 2 2014, 12:28 pm
Yes, I'm using a list for the individual genomes. They're called "blocks" and have names like human-chromosome-1 etc, and reference the genomes datum to get info on what variables to add, etc. They have a value of one byte per block, which can be either a number between 0 and 255, Or a total of 8 bitflags.

Now im wondering how it should create a new mob, a separate entity, from a list of dna blocks and their values.

I could just have a massive string of code saying:

If /hiuman-Chromosome-1 in list
 if bitflag 1
  do this
 if bitflag 2
  do this
 if bitflag 3
  do this
 if bitflag 4
  do this
 if bitflag 5
  do this
 if bitflag 6
  do this
 if bitflag 7
  do this
 if bitflag 8
  do this

If human-Chromosome-2 in list
 if bitflag1
  do this
 if bitflag2
  do this
 if bitflag 3
  do this
 if bitflag 4
  do this
 if bitflag 5
  do this
 if bitflag 6
  do this
 if bitflag 7
  do this
 if bitflag 8
  do this


And so on for all of the 7350 possible dna blocks. Is that what you're expecting?

So each DNA block holds 8 'genomes' which can be either on, or off, determined using bitflag values paired with dnablocks.
Oct 2 2014, 12:52 pm
In response to Nullbear
I'm not sure how this relates to the original question, which was to add variables to an object.
Oct 2 2014, 1:01 pm
How will the object reference the variables? In the list, correct? So it would just have 7350*8 if statements checking if the variable existed, in order to add a certain body part etc?

What i wanted to know in the beginning, was if i could have the datum add variables to the mob depending on which were active, So instead of checking if they were active, it would be told which were active.

dna = new("hC1" = 243, "hC2" = 21, ...)


And so on for every dna block and its value, rather than:

New()
 if hC1 in dna
  do this
 if hC2 in dna
  do this


etc. But forget it.
Oct 2 2014, 1:06 pm
In response to Nullbear
Best response
When you use a variable:
object.variable
object.variable = value

This is equivalent to this, which exists in DM:
object.vars["variable"]
object.vars["variable"] = value

But if you want to add or remove variables, you use a different list, because you can't do that to the built-in vars list.
object.data["variable"]
object.data["variable"] = value

So, I'm not sure what difference it makes if you use a list instead of actual variables. Do you understand this? What problems are you continuing on with?
Oct 4 2014, 5:15 pm
None. I was just trying to clarify. Ive decoded on another system regardless though.