Help with creating an object.

[Geog]

Hello all...I am making a "procedural" asteroids game, where the asteroids are randomly generated in real time. I realize now that the best way to do this is to make each asteroid an object. I have read the tutorials on records, pointers, types, and I don't really understand how they work. Additionally, it appears that AsianSensation never made "Records, Part II" where he was to explain how to create an array with a variable number of fields. This is what my object must include;

Turing:

var asteroid : collection of     record         verticies := Rand.Int (5, 8)         angles := array 1 .. verticies     end record

Thanks for any help... if anybody has a better suggestion on accomplishing this, that would also be appreciated.

[A.J]

Instead of:

code:

var asteroid : collection of     record         verticies := Rand.Int (5, 8)         angles := array 1 .. verticies     end record

I'll advise you to do:

code:

type vertices:      record         x,y:int     end record var numofasteroids := Rand.Int (5, 8) var asteroid : array 1..numofasteroids of vertices

Since you need both an abscissa and an ordinate to form an asteroid ( (x,y) determines a point), you need an array that holds both these values so that you can tamper with these values to your liking.

sry if this isn't what u wanted

[Geog]

Thanks for the help, I have a new idea about the structure of my program. But my asteroids are generated using random angles, so I need to be able to create an array which holds the x/y coordinates of each vertex. The main question is, how does one create an object array using a variable that is defined after the program is executed?

EDIT: Now I understand what you were trying to explain, A.J. Thanks for the help, I'll try it out.
EDIT: Wait, your code only works for storing coordinates for one asteroid. I thought that I would try making the asteroid as an object simply for the fact that I would have to generate several asteroids at once. Please elaborate if I am mistaken once again

[Saad]

The problem is collections and records require to be declared with one size, rather then a changing value.

What you can do is make it so that it stores the number of verticies and an array from 1 to your maximum number of verticies per asteroid.

However another more OOP approach would be to create an VertexArray class which wraps flexible array and has functions which allow for adding, getting, deleting verticies.

[A.J]

Like Saad said, creating a Vertex Array class would be helpful. Look through the turing walk through for some ideas on classes.
I think I misunderstood what you were asking for, so could you tell me what you were trying to say before, please?
(I am kinda slow )

[Geog]

Let's put it this way: I want to make a template for "asteroid" data. I can take this template, and store a random number of x/y coordinates in it. I will call it again to move the coordinates. Then when I need to, I will take the same template to create yet another asteroid. I hope this explains my goal.

Also, do I need to make a class just to store the coordinates? From what I understand of classes right now, it appears that I can put this whole template in the class. Maybe an example?

[A.J]

I am not too good with classes myself (and I am pretty sure Saad will be able to give a much better example than I can ever give).
But by "making a template for asteroids", do you mean like a making a record of random asteroid data that can be called over and over again?

If yes, I'll advise you to use MODULES.

I attached an example of modules below that generates a dice game, where the player (playing with 2 dice) must roll at least 6 to score. If he rolls x (including the rolls of both the dice), if x>6, he then scores x-3. (If this doesn't help WHATSOEVER, please make a point in telling me )

The attached program is in word pad, as I don't have turing on my computer (I just formatted it).

[Geog]

Looking at the modules tutorial, it seems that we are getting closer. But it appears so far that the modules are just like advanced procedures and functions. How would I go about making a module that stores several sets of a random number of values?