[Bf-python] genutils

[alex mole]

[sorry for the length of this email!]

Hi


Is it ok if i add some things to genutils.[ch]?

I've written a few functions and made a structure that saves a *lot* of 
"if...else if..." code by mapping strings to integers, and this sort of 
code is needed in many places in the python module code. The code looks 
like this:


------------------ 8< ----------------------

typedef struct {
     const char *sval;
     int ival;
} EXPP_map_pair;

/* maps must end with a pair that has NULL as sval */

int EXPP_map_getIntVal (const EXPP_map_pair *map,
                                     const char *sval, int *ival)
{
     while (map->sval)
     {
         if (STREQ(sval, map->sval))
         {
             *ival = map->ival;
             return 1;
         }
         ++map;
     }
     return 0;
}

int EXPP_map_getShortVal (const EXPP_map_pair *map,
                                         const char *sval, short *ival)
{
     while (map->sval)
     {
         if (STREQ(sval, map->sval))
         {
             *ival = map->ival;
             return 1;
         }
         ++map;
     }
     return 0;
}

int EXPP_map_getStrVal (const EXPP_map_pair *map,
                                         int ival, const char **sval)
{
     while (map->sval)
     {
         if (ival == map->ival)
         {
             *sval = map->sval;
             return 1;
         }
         ++map;
     }
     return 0;
}


-------------------- 8< -----------------------


and this can be used like:


static const EXPP_map_pair tex_flag_map[] = {
     { "ColorBand",  EXPP_TEX_FLAG_COLORBAND },
     { "FlipBlend",  EXPP_TEX_FLAG_FLIPBLEND },
     { "NegAlpha",   EXPP_TEX_FLAG_NEGALPHA },
     { NULL, 0 }
};



     //flag names in sf[]
     for (i=0; i<3; ++i)
     {
         if (!sf[i]) break;
         if (!expp_tex_getShortVal(tex_flags_map, sf[i], &thisflag))
             return EXPP_ReturnPyObjError (PyExc_ValueError,
                                         "invalid texture flag name");
         flags |= thisflag;
     }



If you compare this code to eg. Material_setMode(), I think you'll agree 
that this is much simpler and [probably] less error prone. Plus it has 
the advantage of automatically being able to work "backwards" and get 
strings from integers.


I currently have this defined just in my Texture.c, but I would like to 
use it in MTex.c as well, and I'm sure that other places could benefit 
from this....


let me know what you think :)

alex





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