Constants (document abandoned feature)

[benloh]

This is working code, but has not been merged.

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The original implementation for "enums" #755 was to implement them as constants. This essentially created a system parallel to props to define static properties and set properties to the defined constant values.

This added two new keywords:

• addConstant
• constantPush

Ultimately this was abandoned because:

• it didn't offer much advantage over existing props
• more importantly, running test required stack operations

The main goal of adding "enums" was make it easier for students to modify code. The stack syntax ultimately made it more difficult to use.

See branch dev-bl/constants for code.

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Test Scripts

// Constant Explorations
// String Contant
addConstant PRODUCER string 'prod'
addConstant CONSUMER string 'cons'
addConstant DECOMPOSER string 'decomp'
// set constant via propPop -- Test to make sure we're getting the right value
constantPush PRODUCER
dbgStack
// set constant via propPop -- do it
constantPush PRODUCER
propPop character.entityType
// do we need to suport globals?
// doesn't work yet -- need to fix class-som-bojects.getConstnat pName.split'
// constantPush global.DEAD

// setToConstant -- doesn't work because we can't do assignments with prop
addProp entityType string 'unset'
prop character.entityType setToConstant PRODUCER
exprPush {{ character.prop.entityType.value }}
dbgStack

// Numeric Constant
addConstant hungry number 0
addConstant content number 1
addConstant full number 2
addConstant dead number -1
// setToConstant -- doesn't work!'
addProp state number 0
prop character.state setToConstant hungry