[devel] CCLabel: proposing new class names

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[devel] CCLabel: proposing new class names

(6 posts) (4 voices)

Started 1 year ago by riq
Latest reply from riq

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riq
Key Master

cocos2d has 3 ways to create labels:

CCLabel:
- It creates labels using TTF files.
- Fast rendering
- Slow creation & updates

CCLabelAtlas:
- It creates labels based on a texture atlas. Very basic format
- Fast rendering / creation / updates.

CCBitmapFontAtlas:
- It creates labels based on a texture atlas. Complex format.
- Fast rendering / creation / updates

The problem I see is that CCBitmapFontAtlas is not a good name... it is very confusing. If it is used to create labels, why doesn't it start with CCLabel prefix like the other 2 label objects ?

So, I would like to rename it to:
CCLabelBMFont. "BMFont" is the name of the tool to create these labels (http://www.angelcode.com/products/bmfont/)

Also, I'm not convinced about the CCLabelAtlas name either... but I don't have any suggestion.

What do you think about it ? Do you have any other suggestion ?

Posted 1 year ago #
pabloruiz55
Member

I think it is a nice idea!

Regarding CCLabelAtlas, how about:
- CCLabelTexture
- CCLabelSheet

They are not any more descriptive...

Posted 1 year ago #
GameBit
Member

why not to leave CCLabel only?

[CCLabel labelWith...
[[CCLabel alloc] initWith...

Posted 1 year ago #
riq
Key Master
@GameBit I thought of that, and it is another possibility.

CCLabel would be the base class, with 3 subclasses:
CCLabelTTF, CCLabelBMFont, CCLabelAtlas.

You can create any of these 3 objects by doing:
```
id label = [CCLabel labelWithTTFFile:...];
id label2 = [CCLabel labelWithBMFontFile:..];
id label3 = [CCLabel labelWithAtlasFile:...];
```
What I don't like about it is that CCLabel won't return a pure CCLabel object. Instead it will return a subclass. Cocoa has some objects that behave like this. That's why self=[super init]; is used. But I'm not sure if want to add this behavior in cocos2d. Also, in order to have this functionality, we still need to have 3 subclasses.

Another possibility is to create a big/fat class, but I'm against of having big/fat classes in cocos2d.
Posted 1 year ago #
JonKean
Member

Using CCLabel as a generic interface for a label (with no direct implementation), and three label implementations as subclasses, has the benefit of swapping out label implementations with zero work. For situations that any label would work, declare a field of type CCLabel, and in the future one could swap out the actual label used with any one of the three implementations (or even use future label implementations if they come around).

Existing CCLabel would need a new name (CCLabelTTF?) .

CCLabel could also have a factory method that takes a single file of any type, and gives back the appropriate implementation for that file (a TTF file returns a CCLabelTTF, etc)

I think that approach is far less confusing, since it's more clear all three are different perspectives of the same thing.

Posted 1 year ago #
riq
Key Master

@JonKean:
I'm not sure how to implement it.

Let's say we have CCLabel and its 3 subclasses: CCLabelTTF, CCLabelAtlas, and CCLabelBMFont.
I guess that CCLabel should be a subclass of CCNode.

But at the moment:
- CCLabelTTF is a subclass of CCSprite
- CCLabelAtlas is a subclass of CCAtlasNode
- CCLabelBMFont is subclass of CCSpriteBatchNode

And since objective-c doesn't support multiple inheritance, I think it won't be possible to do it.

I think that the following code won't work as expected (and perhaps it won't compile either)
CCLabel *label = [CCLabel labelWith...];

Right now the 3 labels implement the CCLabelProtocol protocol, which is nice way to "link" the 3 label classes.

If I'm missing something, please let me know. thanks.

Posted 1 year ago #

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