datum

The absolute base class for everything

A datum instantiated has no physical world prescence, use an atom if you want something that actually lives in the world

Be very mindful about adding variables to this class, they are inherited by every single thing in the entire game, and so you can easily cause memory usage to rise a lot with careless use of variables at this level

Var Details

abstract_type

If this var's value is equivalent to the current type, it is considered abstract. It is illegal to instantiate abstract types.

active_timers

Active timers with this datum as the target

comp_lookup

Any datum registered to receive signals from this datum is in this list

Lazy associated list in the structure of signal:registree/list of registrees

datum_components

Components attached to this datum

Lazy associated list in the structure of type:component/list of components

datum_flags

Datum level flags

gc_destroyed

Tick count time when this object was destroyed.

If this is non zero then the object has been garbage collected and is awaiting either a hard del by the GC subsystme, or to be autocollected (if it has no references)

signal_procs

Lazy associated list in the structure of signals:proctype that are run when the datum receives that signal

status_traits

Status traits attached to this datum. associative list of the form: list(trait name (string) = list(source1, source2, source3,...))

tgui_shared_states

global

Associative list of JSON-encoded shared states that were set by tgui clients.

weak_reference

A weak reference to another datum

Proc Details

Destroy

Default implementation of clean-up code.

This should be overridden to remove all references pointing to the object being destroyed, if you do override it, make sure to call the parent and return it's return value by default

Return an appropriate QDEL_HINT to modify handling of your deletion; in most cases this is QDEL_HINT_QUEUE.

The base case is responsible for doing the following

• Erasing timers pointing to this datum
• Erasing compenents on this datum
• Notifying datums listening to signals from this datum that we are going away

Returns QDEL_HINT_QUEUE

GenerateTag

Generate a tag for this /datum, if it implements one Should be called as early as possible, best would be in New, to avoid weakref mistargets Really just don't use this, you don't need it, global lists will do just fine MOST of the time We really only use it for mobs to make id'ing people easier

GetComponent

Return any component assigned to this datum of the given type

This will throw an error if it's possible to have more than one component of that type on the parent

Arguments:

• datum/component/c_type The typepath of the component you want to get a reference to

GetComponents

Get all components of a given type that are attached to this datum

Arguments:

• c_type The component type path

GetExactComponent

Return any component assigned to this datum of the exact given type

This will throw an error if it's possible to have more than one component of that type on the parent

Arguments:

• datum/component/c_type The typepath of the component you want to get a reference to

RegisterSignal

Register to listen for a signal from the passed in target

This sets up a listening relationship such that when the target object emits a signal the source datum this proc is called upon, will receive a callback to the given proctype Return values from procs registered must be a bitfield

Arguments:

• datum/target The target to listen for signals from
• sig_type_or_types Either a string signal name, or a list of signal names (strings)
• proctype The proc to call back when the signal is emitted
• override If a previous registration exists you must explicitly set this

TakeComponent

Transfer this component to another parent

Component is taken from source datum

Arguments:

• datum/component/target Target datum to transfer to

Topic

Called when a href for this datum is clicked

Sends a COMSIG_TOPIC signal

TransferComponents

Transfer all components to target

All components from source datum are taken

Arguments:

• /datum/target the target to move the components to

UnregisterSignal

Stop listening to a given signal from target

Breaks the relationship between target and source datum, removing the callback when the signal fires

Doesn't care if a registration exists or not

Arguments:

• datum/target Datum to stop listening to signals from
• sig_typeor_types Signal string key or list of signal keys to stop listening to specifically

_AddComponent

Creates an instance of new_type in the datum and attaches to it as parent

Sends the COMSIG_COMPONENT_ADDED signal to the datum

Returns the component that was created. Or the old component in a dupe situation where COMPONENT_DUPE_UNIQUE was set

If this tries to add a component to an incompatible type, the component will be deleted and the result will be null. This is very unperformant, try not to do it

Properly handles duplicate situations based on the dupe_mode var

_AddElement

Finds the singleton for the element type given and attaches it to src

_LoadComponent

Get existing component of type, or create it and return a reference to it

Use this if the item needs to exist at the time of this call, but may not have been created before now

Arguments:

• component_type The typepath of the component to create or return
• ... additional arguments to be passed when creating the component if it does not exist

_RemoveElement

Finds the singleton for the element type given and detaches it from src You only need additional arguments beyond the type if you're using ELEMENT_BESPOKE

_SendSignal

Internal proc to handle most all of the signaling procedure

Will runtime if used on datums with an empty component list

Use the SEND_SIGNAL define instead

clear_signal_refs

Only override this if you know what you're doing. You do not know what you're doing This is a threat

deserialize_json

Deserializes from JSON. Does not parse type.

deserialize_list

Accepts a LIST from deserialize_datum. Should return src or another datum.

dump_harddel_info

Return text from this proc to provide extra context to hard deletes that happen to it Optional, you should use this for cases where replication is difficult and extra context is required

jatum_new_arglist

Gets the flat list that can be passed in a new /type(argslist(retval)) expression to recreate the datum. Must only return a list containing values that can be JATUM serialized

process

This proc is called on a datum on every "cycle" if it is being processed by a subsystem. The time between each cycle is determined by the subsystem's "wait" setting. You can start and stop processing a datum using the START_PROCESSING and STOP_PROCESSING defines.

Since the wait setting of a subsystem can be changed at any time, it is important that any rate-of-change that you implement in this proc is multiplied by the delta_time that is sent as a parameter, Additionally, any "prob" you use in this proc should instead use the DT_PROB define to make sure that the final probability per second stays the same even if the subsystem's wait is altered. Examples where this must be considered:

• Implementing a cooldown timer, use mytimer -= delta_time, not mytimer -= 1. This way, mytimer will always have the unit of seconds
• Damaging a mob, do L.adjustFireLoss(20 * delta_time), not L.adjustFireLoss(20). This way, the damage per second stays constant even if the wait of the subsystem is changed
• Probability of something happening, do if(DT_PROB(25, delta_time)), not if(prob(25)). This way, if the subsystem wait is e.g. lowered, there won't be a higher chance of this event happening per second

If you override this do not call parent, as it will return PROCESS_KILL. This is done to prevent objects that dont override process() from staying in the processing list

ref_search_details

Return info about us for reference searching purposes Will be logged as a representation of this datum if it's a part of a search chain

serialize_json

Serializes into JSON. Does not encode type.

serialize_list

Return a LIST for serialize_datum to encode! Not the actual json!

string_assoc_list

Caches associative lists with non-numeric stringify-able index keys and stringify-able values (text/typepath -> text/path/number).

ui_act

public

Called on a UI when the UI receieves a href. Think of this as Topic().

required action string The action/button that has been invoked by the user. required params list A list of parameters attached to the button.

return bool If the user's input has been handled and the UI should update.

ui_assets

public

Called on an object when a tgui object is being created, allowing you to push various assets to tgui, for examples spritesheets.

return list List of asset datums or file paths.

ui_close

public

Called on a UI's object when the UI is closed, not to be confused with client/verb/uiclose(), which closes the ui window

ui_data

public

Data to be sent to the UI. This must be implemented for a UI to work.

required user mob The mob interacting with the UI.

return list Data to be sent to the UI.

ui_host

private

The UI's host object (usually src_object). This allows modules/datums to have the UI attached to them, and be a part of another object.

ui_interact

public

Used to open and update UIs. If this proc is not implemented properly, the UI will not update correctly.

required user mob The mob who opened/is using the UI. optional ui datum/tgui The UI to be updated, if it exists.

ui_state

private

The UI's state controller to be used for created uis This is a proc over a var for memory reasons

ui_static_data

public

Static Data to be sent to the UI.

Static data differs from normal data in that it's large data that should be sent infrequently. This is implemented optionally for heavy uis that would be sending a lot of redundant data frequently. Gets squished into one object on the frontend side, but the static part is cached.

required user mob The mob interacting with the UI.

return list Statuic Data to be sent to the UI.

ui_status

public

Checks the UI state for a mob.

required user mob The mob who opened/is using the UI. required state datum/ui_state The state to check.

return UI_state The state of the UI.

update_static_data

public

Forces an update on static data. Should be done manually whenever something happens to change static data.

required user the mob currently interacting with the ui optional ui ui to be updated

update_static_data_for_all

public

Forces an update on static data. Should be done manually whenever something happens to change static data. Applies to all UIs tied to this object.