LavenderTheGreat/SpecialZone

COLLECT 30 RINGS! A simple state management library for Lua.

SpecialZone

COLLECT 30 RINGS! A simple state management library for Lua.

Specification

States must be objects with callbacks as listed under love on the wiki. For instance, if you want your function to update, the object it returns must have an update functions ie state.update(), state being what you return.

States can then be compiled into stacks, which are arrays in the format of:

local stack = {
    stack = {
        {
            state = state, -- this is your required file with updates and etc
            settings = {
                -- this is some basic settings you can enable, such as disabling certain callbacks.
                -- these are usually set to defaults.
                update = true, -- To pause, set this to false.
                draw = true, -- To hide, set this to false.
                keypressed = true -- To prevent interaction, set this to false.

                -- you can make as many of these as you want!
            }
        }
    }
    call = function(self, callback, ...)
}

You then hook these into the various rendering functions and it should work as intended.

-- Load our state library
local state = require("specialZone")

-- Make stack with 2 modules, the second of which won't ever receive keypresses.
local stack = state.new({require("screen")}, {require("menu"), {keypressed = false}})

-- Example hook
function love.keypressed(key)
    stack:call("keypressed", key) 
    -- Arguments can (and should) be passed as normal, 
    -- but there's nothing stopping you adding a bit more to your callbacks
end

-- Drawing
function love.draw()
    stack:call("draw")
end

Conventions

• Module settings and tweaks should be stored under the object returned (ie state.opacity)

Example state

local state = {
    settings = {
        text = "Hello World!"
    }
}

function state.draw()
    love.graphics.print(settings.text, 0, 0)
end

function state.keypressed(key)
    state.settings.text = state.settings.text .. key
end

return state

This state prints Hello World at the corner of the screen, which can be extended by keypresses. It also exposes the text to the main file.

Documentation

Functions

• new(states) Creates a new stack.

  Arguments

  • states Array of tables in the format {state, settings}. Settings is a table of key value booleans like callbackName (String): isOn (Boolean) ie {keypressed = false, draw = false}. Anything not listed here is treated as true.

  Returns

  stack - Callable stack of your states.

Types

• stack Table formatted like:

  local stack = {
      stack = {
          {
              state = state, -- this is your required file with updates and etc
              settings = {
                  -- this is some basic settings you can enable, such as disabling certain callbacks.
                  -- these are usually set to defaults.
                  update = true, -- To pause, set this to false.
                  draw = true, -- To hide, set this to false.
                  keypressed = true -- To prevent interaction, set this to false.
  
                  -- you can make as many of these as you want!
              }
          }
      }
      call = function(self, callback, ...)
  }

  Functions

  • call Iterates over the stack calling a specific function with the arguments provided, given that the function both exists in the stack member and that it isn't disabled via the settings arguments.