Tonypa's old AS2 tile based tutorials...

[bearsfan1978]

I've been reading Tonypa's old AS2 tile based tutorials and while I'm very slowly getting a grasp on them, there's a small bit, that no matter how much I reread the tutorial, I can't wrap my head around it and was hoping for some clarification on the forums here. His code for building the maps are as follows:

// our map is 2-dimensional array
myMap = [[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], [1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1], [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]];
// declare game object that holds info
game = {tileW:30, tileH:30};
// walkable tile
game.Tile0 = function () { };
game.Tile0.prototype.walkable = true;
game.Tile0.prototype.frame = 1;
// wall tile
game.Tile1 = function () { };
game.Tile1.prototype.walkable = false;
game.Tile1.prototype.frame = 2;
// building the world
function buildMap(map) {
    // attach empty mc to hold all the tiles and char
    _root.attachMovie("empty", "tiles", ++d);
    // declare clip in the game object
    game.clip = _root.tiles;
    // get map dimensions
    var mapWidth = map[0].length;
    var mapHeight = map.length;
    // loop to place tiles on stage
    for (var i = 0; i<mapHeight; ++i) {
        for (var j = 0; j<mapWidth; ++j) {
            // name of new tile
            var name = "t_"+i+"_"+j;
            // make new tile object in the game
            game[name] = new game["Tile"+map[i][j]]();
            // attach tile mc and place it
            game.clip.attachMovie("tile", name, i*100+j*2);
            game.clip[name]._x = (j*game.tileW);
            game.clip[name]._y = (i*game.tileH);
            // send tile mc to correct frame
            game.clip[name].gotoAndStop(game[name].frame);
        }
    }
}
// make the map
buildMap(myMap);
stop();

Oddly, after alot of uneducated study, I'm getting a handle on it....except this line

game[name] = new game["Tile"+map[i][j]]();

I get that it's creating an object for each tile and referencing back to it via the "Tile"+map[i[[j] part, but I don't understand the 1st part: game [name].

I see this syntax alot in Tonypa's tutorials, but I'm not sure what's going on there. [] are for arrays, correct? By putting game[name], is this line putting the new tile objects into a new array? I've looked in alot of array tutorials as well as object tutorials, but I have yet to see any syntax for:

something [something] = something

I imagine it's establishing a variable, though I usually see var something = something. I guess ultimately, it's the [] brackets BEFORE the = sign that is confusing. Sorry for the VERY simple question, but thank you for any help guys.

[Son of Bryce]

The brackets are for referring to a variable within an object by using a dynamic text string.

What "game["Tile"+map[i][j]]" ends up being is "game["Tile"+1]" which Flash will interpret as a variable or object named "game.Tile1". Which in this case created a new tile based on that prototype Tile1(), so the code will be executed as...

game[name] = new game.Tile1();

I'm not completely familiar with how prototypes work in AS2, but I believe it's the equivalent to a "class", a bit of code you can execute anywhere or create multiple instances of.

Another example for when you might use the brackets, say you have a bunch of enemies or bullets. You may loop through all of them on an enterframe to make them move. They're named "enemy1, enemy2, enemy3, etc." You might make a loop like this.

var enemyTotal = 10;
for (var i = 0; i < enemyTotal; i++) {
   trace("moving enemy" + (i + 1) );
   this["enemy" + (i + 1)].move();
}

Hope that clears your confusion!

[bearsfan1978]

The brackets are for referring to a variable within an object by using a dynamic text string.

A dynamic text string is simply a text string that is constantly changing, right? And that line is just referencing each "name" variable (IE: t_0_0, t_0_1, etc..) to the Tile1, Tile1, Tile0, functions etc....? Once that is established, it goes about placing each Tile1, Tile1, Tile0, etc..

[ImprisonedPride]

Basically you're targeting/creating something within the object's array of properties by name.