From: eatmyjunk@...
Date: 2006-08-31T03:50:39+09:00
Subject: Separation of Variables

I have a few variables for a program I am attempting to write that I
need to be able to read into my script. However, certain ones take on a
different scope than others, so I would like to separate them out into
groups (in different files, hopefully). It is for film production, so
I'll try to break it down with that in mind. I hope I'm clear enough.

The groupings are:
1. Variables that are used every time the script is run, and never (or
nearly never) change, such as the project name.
2. Variables that remain the same for every time the script is run on
certain shot, but are unique to only that shot, such as the length.
3. Variables that change every time the script runs, such as the render
version or the date (not taken from the system time, unfortunately).
These variables should also be able to compute what the correct file
for group 2 variables are.
4. Variables that are calculated from the previous 3 groups and are
unique with each running of the script, such as the filename of the
file to be rendered, and its output.

What I have got working so far is to set all my variables in four
files, however, I have to manually specify them in the main .rb script.
Additionally, I can only seem to get it to work with $variables, and
nothing else. For now, I'd like to have the ruby script run with a flag
to tell it where to start looking for the variables, and be able to
pass them on and calculate them until they all get back to the main
script.

Here's an example:

(in instance_variables.rb)
$shotScene = 10
$shotShot = 1
$shotVersion = 4
...

(in main.rb)
require 'environment_variables.rb'
require 'instance_variables.rb'
require 'shot_variables.rb'
require 'calculated_variables.rb'
...

Although I have not yet set it up, I also want to integrate this group
of variables (1, 2, 3 and 4) into a database (rails?), so that I can
have a sort of queue (queued, currently running, and logged entries).
Although I'll try to muddle my way through a bit more before I
integrate a db back end, I need to have a solution that can look
forward to that eventuality.

Cheers, and thanks,
Martin