Not much help for you, I guess, but the way I do it is to utilise a Type Safe Enumeration pattern within Java.
As it stands, because constants defined within C++ are IIRC ints, it means different constants with the same value can become interchangeable, ie
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">#define GRAEME_KELLY 2#define POT_NOODLE 2</pre>
Both constants there are theoretically belonging to a different problem domain space, but resolve to the same value, hence can be used interchangeably.
I therefore spend hours converting the constants into Java objects; for example...
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">public final class InjuryCategoryType{ private String text; private InjuryCategoryType(String text) {this.text = text; } public String toString() {return text; } public static final InjuryCategoryType ANY = new InjuryCategoryType("Any"); public static final InjuryCategoryType INTERNAL = new InjuryCategoryType("Internal"); public static final InjuryCategoryType FOOT = new InjuryCategoryType("Foot"); public static final InjuryCategoryType SHIN = new InjuryCategoryType("Shin"); public static final InjuryCategoryType KNEE = new InjuryCategoryType("Knee"); public static final InjuryCategoryType THIGH = new InjuryCategoryType("Thigh"); public static final InjuryCategoryType GROIN = new InjuryCategoryType("Groin"); public static final InjuryCategoryType UPPER_BODY = new InjuryCategoryType("Upper Body"); public static final InjuryCategoryType HAND = new InjuryCategoryType("Hand"); public static final InjuryCategoryType ARM = new InjuryCategoryType("Arm"); public static final InjuryCategoryType SHOULDER = new InjuryCategoryType("Shoulder"); public static final InjuryCategoryType NECK = new InjuryCategoryType("Neck"); public static final InjuryCategoryType HEAD = new InjuryCategoryType("Head"); public static final InjuryCategoryType REHABILITATION = new InjuryCategoryType("Rehabilitation"); public static final InjuryCategoryType[] CM4_INJURY_CATEGORY_TYPES = new InjuryCategoryType[] { ANY, INTERNAL, FOOT, SHIN, KNEE, THIGH, GROIN, UPPER_BODY, HAND, ARM, SHOULDER, NECK, HEAD, REHABILITATION }; public static InjuryCategoryType getInjuryTypeByIndex(Version version, int index){ int tempIndex = index+1; if ( version == Version.CM4 ) { if (( tempIndex >= 0 ) && ( tempIndex < CM4_INJURY_CATEGORY_TYPES.length)) { return CM4_INJURY_CATEGORY_TYPES[tempIndex]; } } return ANY;}}</pre>
So, where a field value points to an Injury Category, rather than defining it within the particular class as a primitive data type, I instead define it's type as being InjuryCategoryType. This gives me type safety, as any attempt to push an invalid object into the attribute gives a compile time error, so I avoid any potential run time logic errors.
From a GUI perspective, I also define an array enumerating the values allowed for a specific game version. Hence, to populate them into say a JComboBox in Java, it's as simple as
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">JComboBox tempComboBox = new JComboBox(InjuryCategoryType.CM4_INJURY_CATEGORY_T YPES);</pre>
As a consequence, it means I can be more confident that those particular fields are therefore validated correctly if they are change, because you can only select an allowed value object.
The obvious other issue required is to code load/save functionality to map between the primitive value defined in the files and the objects I define.
In VB, then I'd guess an array / list of Strings is probably the way you have to do it; try to encapsulate the Strings, constant values, lookup code into a separate file if possible.
[This message was edited by Graeme Kelly on 15 June 2003 at 15:17.]
), indicating where an injury occured, in injury.h
Linear Mode
