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Passing ALLEGRO_* by reference
Geek on Skates
Member #16,922
December 2018
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Hey there, new guy here. I've written a function that does all the initializing (al_init, al_create_display, etc.) so I can keep all that stuff out of main(); it's also important because I'd like to pass them to other functions later. I would like to pass by reference, but some of the structures like ALLEGRO_DISPLAY, ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE etc. seem to have something "incomplete" about them (if you don't make it a pointer, Visual Studio screams "incomplete type is not allowed"). Now I've been working in C for awhile, and I've used structs before (and created plenty myself), and I've never seen this error. I don't know what makes Allegro's "incomplete", but apparently it is because {reasons}. In other words, I'm trying to do:

ALLEGRO_DISPLAY * screen = NULL;
ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE * event_q = NULL;
ALLEGRO_EVENT_SOURCE * keyboard = NULL;
int setup = load_allegro(screen, event_q, keyboard);
// this "load_allegro" returns a value indicating whether
// it worked and what failed if it didn't.

The function works as expected, I get a display for a second, and it returns 0 (no error), but then the variables go out of scope, so all those pointers are NULL again, so I can't do anything with them.

So normally, if I want output variables, I would pass by reference (using "&"), but trying that here results in the same error. I'm sure there's some super-simple solution I just haven't seen before... or is there? Maybe it's a Visual Studio issue? I suppose I could just make them global and have a header with all my global variables, but I'd rather not do that if I can help it. I've been all over Google and I'm all out of theories, so I figured I'd ask the experts. Any info on the subject would be awesome. Thanks! :)

The Geek on Skates
Tech, hockey, and all things geeky
http://www.geekonskates.com

Doctor Cop
Member #16,833
April 2018
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Geek on Skates said

So normally, if I want output variables, I would pass by reference (using "&"), but trying that here results in the same error. I'm sure there's some super-simple solution I just haven't seen before... or is there?

passing & of screen seems wrong since screen is a reference.

if you are doing something like

    // In main
    int setup = load_allegro(screen, event_q, keyboard);

    // Outside main
    load_allegro(ALLEGRO_DISPLAY &screen, ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE &event_q, ALLEGRO_EVENT_SOURCE &keyboard){
            // Your code
         }

Then it should not be a problem. Try updating your IDE.
I don't guarantee that it will work.

What you are trying to do is a bad practice, that's how cool kids create bottlenecks for their programs. They try to push the uncool code into a separate function and try to make C code look like python code, don't be like them.

and upload source code from next time, its really hard to guess what you're doing actually wrong.

Geek on Skates
Member #16,922
December 2018
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Thanks for the advice, and I apologize for not pasting more code in. I didn't think there was anything particularly wrong about separating stuff out into different functions; I was thinking more along the lines of keeping the code organized. But of course it's always better to follow best practices. So a 1000-line main() it is. (;D)

Seriously though, while I was waiting for this I actually put all my load_allegro and unload_allegro code into main, and while it's a bit more "speaghetti-like" but it definitely works, and in my main event loop I can still use other functions without having to do that anyway. So thanks again & have a great weekend. :)

PS: Speaking of posting code, how did you make your code indented and use syntax highlighting? I don't see any button for it. Or is this one of those where you can just do [CODE]//my code[/CODE}?

The Geek on Skates
Tech, hockey, and all things geeky
http://www.geekonskates.com

Doctor Cop
Member #16,833
April 2018
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Its like HTML code <code>
and <quote>

don't forget to close the tags with </tagname>

Edgar Reynaldo
Major Reynaldo
May 2007
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You don't need to pass by reference, since they're already pointers. You would only need a reference if you wanted to change the variable itself. And passing a reference to an allegro struct is usually wrong.

For a quick example, say you wanted to write a function that initializes all your allegro variables :

#SelectExpand
1bool SetupAllegro(ALLEGRO_DISPLAY** pdisplay , ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE** pqueue , ALLEGRO_TIMER** ptimer) { 2 if (!pdisplay || !pqueue || !ptimer) {return false;} 3 4 ALLEGRO_DISPLAY* d = al_create_display(800,600); 5 ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE* q = al_create_event_queue(); 6 ALLEGRO_TIMER* t = al_create_timer(1.0/60.0); 7 8 if (q) { 9 al_register_event_source(q , al_get_timer_event_source(t)); 10 al_register_event_source(q , al_get_display_event_source(d)); 11 } 12 13 if (!d) { 14 printf("Failed to create display.\n"); 15 } 16 if (!q) { 17 printf("Failed to create event queue.\n"); 18 } 19 if (!t) { 20 printf("Failed to create timer.\n"); 21 } 22 23 *pdisplay = d; 24 *pqueue = q; 25 *ptimer = t; 26 return d && q && t; 27}

ALLEGRO_DISPLAY* d = 0;
ALLEGRO_EVENT_QUEUE* q = 0;
ALLEGRO_TIMER* t = 0;

if (!SetupAllegro(&d , &q , &t)) {
   printf("Setup failed.\n");
}

Now you can pass a reference to a pointer, but you cannot pass a reference to most allegro structs, because they are opaque data structure.

What you are trying to do is a bad practice, that's how cool kids create bottlenecks for their programs. They try to push the uncool code into a separate function and try to make C code look like python code, don't be like them.

Using functions to organize and separate data is not only NOT a bad practice, it is ESSENTIAL to writing good code. It has nothing to do with Python. Python can be just as unorganized and messy as C can.

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