Reading file to pointer

[jondmml]

Hello, I was wondering how I could read a file object and place it into a pointer. Any help with this would be appreciated.

Jon

[Cervantes]

Are you trying to read the state of an object in from a file? I don't think I understand your question. Could you please elaborate?

[jondmml]

I will include to explain the situation

I first create the following type in two programs

code:

% Each moving character is represented by this type type Character :     record         x, y : int                  % Location of the character         dx, dy : int                % Direction of the character         dir : int                   % Direction pointing of the character         pFeature : int              % Used when calculating the mouth of Pacman         sizex, sizey : int          % Dimensions of character         sColor : int                % Color of character stored as integer         pType : int                 % Types include 100. Pacman 101. Ghost     end record

I declare a var and set atributes to it and then save it to a file. I then wish to retrieve this variable in another file and set it to apointer. Currently my code looks like this:

code:

procedure setupPointer (pChar : ^Character, t : Character)     pChar -> x := t.x     pChar -> y := t.y     pChar -> dx := t.dx     pChar -> dy := t.dy     pChar -> dir := t.dir     pChar -> pFeature := t.pFeature     pChar -> sColor := t.sColor     pChar -> pType := t.pType end setupPointer var pacmanChar : pointer to Character new pacmanChar var t : Character var fileNum : int open : fileNum, "4", read read : fileNum, t setupPointer (pacmanChar, t) close : fileNum

This, however, crashes turing every time it is run!

Thanks again

[Cervantes]

I'm not running windows, so I don't have Turing, so I can't see what the error message is. Do you think you could post that?

I've never created a pointer to a regular type like that before. Is it necessary? There are things called "collections" that you might look into. Maybe they wouldn't crash Turing.

[jondmml]

I've attached the panic log. I was wondering what the difference between a type and collection is and why one should be used over another.

[Clayton]

What is the actual error you're getting though? I ran it using my own file (by the way, there should be an extension on that filename...), and it works fine.

[jondmml]

Sorry about the whole confusion, I have realized my mistake. Unfortunately I have led you on a wild goose chase regarding a silly mistake where I tried to set the values inside the file to pointers which cannot work. Thanks again for your help since it helped me find my own mistake!

Jon

[ericfourfour]

Just a few suggestions to improve your code:

Turing:

procedure setupPointer (pChar : ^Character, t : Character)     pChar -> x := t.x     pChar -> y := t.y     pChar -> dx := t.dx     pChar -> dy := t.dy     pChar -> dir := t.dir     pChar -> pFeature := t.pFeature     pChar -> sColor := t.sColor     pChar -> pType := t.pType end setupPointer

You should think of a better name for this procedure, like setupCharacter or something similar. setupPointer can be easily confused with anything in your program that deals with pointers.

Also, this can be better suited as a function. Make it return a pointer to a character. Or even better, look into object orientation. That can definitely make your program easier to work with.