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Ok, I've searched the forums and have noticed a couple shortcomings with DarkBasic pro and using user-defined datatypes.

1) UDT cannot directly be passed as a parameter in a function, if they're also a part of an array
2) You cannot use a UDT as a return value from a function, without a workaround
3) UDT cannot contain arrays, without a workaround.

These three problems have definitely made me think outside of the box in regards to my programming. However, I cannot get past this shaking feeling that my code is becoming bloated, inefficient, and just plain horrible

As quick rundown of my program....

a) Multiple people in the level
b) Each person casts four vectors for collision detection
c) Each vector consists of two points
d) Each point consists of three values (X,Y,Z)

I come from the world of object-oriented programming, and this screams using UDT's and arrays to store these data types. But, I cannot easily manipulate UDT's in functions, as there are limitations passing them in, and they cannot be returned without a hackjob. Which in itself could lead to buggy code. I could have duplicate code, which would solve that problem, but duplicate code leads to its own issues.

So, I'm confused. I'm relatively new to DarkBasic (hence all the newbie posts!) but I'm still extremely excited about using the product. In the week or so that I've been programming, I've exceeded what would take months to do in other SDK's that I have used.

But, for the sake of good design code, and not wanting to rewrite huge chunks later on - what good design tips are there for dealing with data situations like this?

EDIT: To show a small portion of what I have so far....

That all looks OK so far. Now all you have to do in your functions is pass the array element. The array is global, so the function can see it.

I also am coming from a heavy OOP background. But way back in the day I learned how to program in Basic.

You can do certain things to organize your code, but at the end of the day, your game code is gonna look like Copypasta aka Spaghetti code. Knowing that keep your programs simple.

The key here is spend a day elminating that idea of "Code Reuse" that OOP forces on you. Each and every basic program is going to be a one off thing. Then use the power of Gosub and Return to hook all your various programs together.

But I offer all of this on a contingency bases... I have been using DBPro for exactly one day.

For what it is worth, I spent a year trying to put together a game in XNA, and rather than having spaghetti code, with XNA you wind up with a sea of objects floating in a list, and sorting out a few misbehaving objects in that mess makes working through spaghetti look simple.

I whole heartily disagree with you there! All my programs are designed so that modular functions can be plugged in via their own include file which contains all the needed variable declarations, and all functions automatically initialise themselves. The perfect example of code reuse right there. I can take one addin file, (for example the water shader plugin) and everything I need to create shader water is included in that file. One call to the "CreateWater" function and BAM! Shader water which can be plugged into any program I want without ANY additional coding changes.


I whole heartily disagree with you there! Gosub/return forces you to keep all your code in one giant routine with no local/global variable scope. See my above answer as to what I believe to be the one true approach to modular coding in a procedural language.

Well lets agree to disagree.

I like Global variables for smallish programs (say < 10k lines of code). DarkBasic seems to have a lot of emphasis on global variables... All game objects are in a couple of different global arrays/lists. All arrays are global. There is a lot of emphasis on global identifiers in DarkBasic.

Private identifiers do have their place... But I don't see the difference it would make by putting your CreateWater function in a subroutine instead, and then just including it in your program, then adding Gosub _CreatWater to your program...

That's definitely not the case. I have my own library of DBP functions that mean I can make a menu with multiple levels, bitmap font dynamic options, fade in and out, and mouse over effects (including fade, scale rotate and position) all in about 10 lines of code. I can load and sequence multiple sound effects, automatically generate screen resolution options, display a high score entry keyboard and create a HUD in just a few lines each. All of these are supported by self-contained modular functions.


If you use functions, then you can use local variables. Gosub vs Functions is personal preference, I never use any Gosubs myself.