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object subclasses doing their own thing

To: RB Games <realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: object subclasses doing their own thing
From: Paul Kaiser <buddy at goodlearning dot com>
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 01:10:48 -0500
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I have a class GameObject.

I wanted subclasses of this:
PlayerObject
EnemyObject
EmitterObject
ShotObject

But instead I'm just using GameObject and setting an "objectType" integer based on what type of object it is supposed to be.

Then, when the GameObject has its nextFrame or collision methods called, it uses a Select Case to see what its objectType is, and performs accordingly.

This seems silly. I think I'm missing something about how classes work. I understand inheritance at the simplest level, and I don't see how I can simplify this.

I tried a sample project to see if I could just have an array that holds GameObjects, and I could append whatever subclass of GameObject to it I wanted (i.e append a PlayerObject, then append a few EnemyObjects, whatever...). Then I could just say myArray(i).nextframe and it would do the nextframe for the appropriate subclass. (i.e. if myArray(i) had been added as an EnemyObject, it would execute the nextframe method as written in the EnemyObject subclass.)

Well, that doesn't work (I didn't see how it could, but thought I'd try).

Is this that situation where I might be able to do it, but I'd have to typecast all the time?

Sorry, it's late.

Paul

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