Missing usage of particleClass in FlxEmitter

[moly]

FlxEmitter now uses the custom particle class to recycle instead of FlxParticle.
Fixed #6, AdamAtomic#226

[IQAndreas]

Looks good to me.

On a different note, you still run the risk of the user assigning an object that isn't a FlxParticle (there doesn't seem to be error handling for that, should there be?), but hopefully developers are smart enough to keep that in mind.

[Dovyski]

Looks ok to me too. If think it would be useful to log a warning if a class that isn't a FlxParticle is used. At least it will give the developer a clue when an exception pops up an ugly stack trace during the particles instantiation.

[IQAndreas]

Is there a clever way to see if a Class object is of a certain type?

• Create one instance and check it?
• Parse it out of describeType()?

[moly]

Easiest way is probably just to put a try catch around particle = new particleClass(); and particle = recycle

[IQAndreas]

@moly Since you already have this pull request open, do you want to add that feature, or is it better to keep it separated as a different merge?

[moly]

I'll just add it here.

[Dovyski]

It will produce several log entries. Shouldn't we create a setter for particleClass and there verify if the class is good? It will produce just a single log entry in case of problem.

Additionally I think the log message should display the problematic particleClass, someting like "error.." + particleClass + " more text". It will help the developer to find the malfunctioning emitter.

[IQAndreas]

If I may (to compensate for me feeling so helpless in many of the other open pull requests):

protected var _particleClass:Class;
public function get particleClass():Class
{
    return _particleClass;
}
public function set particleClass(value:Class):void
{
    var testParticle:* = new value();
    if (testParticle is FlxParticle)
    {
        _particleClass = value;
    }
    else
    {
        FlxG.log("ERROR: " + getQualifiedClassName(testParticle) " must extend FlxParticle in order to be used in a FlxEmitter.");
    }
}

Adam doesn't use enough getters and setters, and I find that to be a shame.

[Dovyski]

Exactly what I had in mind, @IQAndreas.

[IQAndreas]

@moly - Do you want to merge in my fix-flxemitter-particleclass branch into this pull request?
https://github.com/IQAndreas/flixel/tree/fix-flxemitter-particleclass

It includes the fixes we mentioned here.

[IQAndreas]

@moly Hey, what did you do with my fancy getQualifiedClassName()? ;)

[IQAndreas]

It might be a good idea also changing the ASDoc a tad more so as to resolve the issue #47

/**
* Set your own particle class type here. The custom class must extend <code>FlxParticle</code>.
* Default is <code>FlxParticle</code>.
*/

That way users don't need to trigger the error before learning about this restriction.

[Dovyski]

I agree (it should already be there :)

[IQAndreas]

I just noticed Flixel has it's own function for retrieving the class name:

FlxU.getClassName(testParticle);

Could you add a commit with this change, and include the addition to the ASDoc?

[Dovyski]

I think it is useful. The complete class name will make things easier for developers to spot bugs.

[IQAndreas]

@moly Great! I didn't realize you had already added the commits.

I didn't realize this before, but GitHub does not seem to notify when updates are added, only when comments are made. We should probably post a quick comment whenever we add or edit commits.

These changes look good to me, so I'll go ahead and merge them in.