From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2012-09-24T20:07:52+09:00
Subject: Re: still learning by doing - connecting rooms in a game

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 12:02 AM, Henry Maddocks <hmaddocks@me.com> wrote:
>
> To start with I would have…
>
> One Room class that takes a name and description

Ack.

> and a visited attribute.

Well, it depends what kind of attribute you are thinking of: if there
are more players then the attribute would at least have to be a
collection type.  Conceptually visit is a relationship between room
and user - with potentially more properties (e.g. time of visit,
order).

> Not a class for each room as you have done.

Ack.

> Create a Map structure that defines the room layout. Something like
>
> [
>         {:room => :kitchen,           :next_rooms => {:north => :living_room, :south => :basement}},
>         {:room => : living_room, :next_rooms => {:north => :bathroom, :south => :kitchen}},
>         ...
> ]

I'd rather make the rooms reference their neighbors, maybe like this:

class Room
  attr_accessor :name, :description

  def neighbors
    @neighbors || = {}
  end

  def connect(direction, other_room)
    neighbors[direction] = other_room
    other_room.neighbors[reverse_direction(direction)] = self
  end

private
  def reverse_direction(d)
    case d
    when :north then :south
    when :south then :north
  #...
    else
      raise ArgumentError, "Illegal direction: %p" % [d]
  end
end

Kind regards

robert

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