Re: [AD] various questions about events (4.3)

[Peter Wang <novalazy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2007-05-07, Matthew Leverton <meffer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've been familarizing myself with the 4.3 stuff recently. I haven't
> really kept up on any of it, so I don't know much about the changes. I
> have some simple questions regarding events:
> 
> * Can users create their own event sources or is it limited to built-in ones?

It's currently limited to the built-in ones.  User-defined events could
be added.

> * Can there only ever be 32 different event types? (It looks like they
> are masks.)

Yes, it's limited to 32 due to the event masks.  I'm not sure that the
event masks weren't a premature optimisation on my part so maybe we
should remove them?

> * What do mouse.dx, mouse.dy, and mouse.dz represent?

Differences since the last mouse event that was generated.

> 
> * Are events the only official way to get input?

We've provided querying-type input methods as well.  e.g. you can get
input via al_get_keyboard_state() + al_key_down() or
al_get_mouse_state(), etc.  They are listed in the naturaldocs.

> For instance, is
> key[] considered to be in the compatibility layer?

key[] is part of the compatibility layer, yes.

> I just ask because
> events can be both useful and unwieldy, depending on the situation.

That's true but the querying functions should handle most other cases.
We don't have a simple equivalent of the keyboard buffer, though.
In the past the idea was that we would add convenience routines on top
of the events system.  It might happen yet :)

Peter