Scripting: Best Practices – Arma Reforger

Getting started

In the domain of development, any rule is a rule of thumb. If a rule states for example that it is better that a line of code doesn't go over 80 characters, it doesn't mean that any line must not go over 80 characters; sometimes, the situation needs it.

If the code has a good structure, do not change it to enforce a single arbitrary rule. If many of them are not implemented/not respected, changes should be applied; again, this is according to one's judgement.

With that being said, let's go!

Best practices

Code format

• Reminder: chosen indentation for Enfusion is Allman style
• Reminder: indentation is done with tabulations
• Use empty space. Line return, spaces before and after brackets, if this improves readability, use it: space is free
• One-lining (putting everything in one statement) memory improvement is most of the time not worth the headache it gives when trying to read it: don't overuse it
  • it also hinders debugger's usage, e.g in the event of an inlined if

Variable format

• Name variables and functions properly: code must be readable by a human being, e.g variables like u instead of uniform should not exist.
  • i is an accepted iteration variable name (e.g in for loops).
• Prefix any public content (classes, global methods, global variables) with a Creator Tag in order to prevent conflicts with other mods.
• Use the closest value type whenever possible; using auto for a known variable type makes code less clear.

Code Structuration

SOLID

A series of development principles to follow in order to ensure an easy code maintenance and lifetime.

ⓘ

See SOLID.

DRY

Don't Repeat Yourself. If within the same class, the same code or the same pattern is written in various places, write a protected method and use appropriate parameters.

ⓘ

See Don't repeat yourself.

Logical Simplifications

If the code has too many repetitions, make a common method as stated above.

If the code has too many levels, it is time to split it and rethink it.

Examples

Improvable	Good
auto number = 42; Animal cutePet = new Dog();	int number = 42; Dog cutePet = new Dog();
for (int i = 0; i < list.Count(); i++) { }	for (int i = 0, count = list.Count(); i < count; i++) // only one list.Count() call { }
// declaring 'text' string in every for loop creates a pointer attribution for each loop for (int i = 0, count = list.Count(); i < count; i++) { string text = "Value " + i + " is " + list[i]; Print(text); }	string text; // external declaration = one pointer attribution for (int i = 0, count = list.Count(); i < count; i++) { text = "Value " + i + " is " + list[i]; Print(text); } which can also be simplified to foreach (int i, element : list) { PrintFormat("Value %1 is %2", i, element); }
if (a) { if (b) { if (c) { Method(true); } else { Method(false); } } }	if (a && b) { Method(c); }
Boilerplate code: int i = 0; if (a) { i++; } if (b) { i++; } if (c) { i++; }	Simplified: int i = 0; array<bool> conditions = { a, b, c }; foreach (bool condition : conditions) { if (condition) { i++; } } or (if some other code is involved) int i = 0; IncrementIfTrue(a, i); IncrementIfTrue(b, i); IncrementIfTrue(c, i); void IncrementIfTrue(bool condition, out int value) { if (condition) { value++; } }
Initialise(player1, 1); Initialise(player2, 2); Initialise(player3, 3); Initialise(player4, 4); Initialise(player5, 5); Initialise(player6, 6);	array<IEntity> list = { player1, player2, player3, player4, player5, player6 }; foreach (int i, item : list) { Initialise(item, i + 1); }

Code Comments

Code comments are surprisingly not a must-have; code organisation combined to variable names should be enough to be read by a human, then comment can be used:

• • a comment should explain why the code is written this way
  • a comment should not tell what the code does; code should be self-explanatory
  • as a last resort in the event of a complex piece of code, a comment can be used to describe what the code actually does - or at least its intention
• On the other hand, Documentation is more than welcome as it provides information from the outside without having to read the code. Enfusion uses Doxygen format.

Files organisation

ⓘ

See Directory Structure to know how/where to organise script files (Scripts\GameCode).

• Have one class/enum per file
  • Small classes/enums can always be grouped together in the same file, provided they are part of the same system or only used there
• Use (sub-)directories to group related classes