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I missed my attachMovie and removeMovieClip commands from Flash whilst in Director, and after not being satisfied with some of the sprite engines posted on <a href=”http://www.director-online.com/”>Director-online.com</a>, I built my own. It’s far from complete, as I added like no error checking, but it still works as long as you don’t screw up (like attach a sprite to the same depth, but that doesn’t work well in Flash either, now does it?)

Like everything in Director, though, you need at least something on the stage to get this to work. It’s really simple, though.

– open the bitmap window
– give it a name “blank”
– close the bitmap window. This should put it as a cast member in your case
– add it to sprite channel 1
– repeat the same keyframe for as many sprites as you think you’ll use (I did the max, 1000, cause I’m freaky-deaky like that)
– add this code as a movie script (or with your other code)
<pre><code>
global gSprites

on prepareMovie

gSprites = [:]

end

on attachSprite memberName, spriteName, spriteDepth
s = Symbol(spriteName)
if voidP(gSprites[s]) then
sprite(spriteDepth).member = member(memberName)
sprite(spriteDepth).member.regPoint = point(0, 0)
gSprites[s] = sprite(spriteDepth)
return sprite(spriteDepth)
end if
end

on removeSprite spriteName
i = gSprites.getOne(spriteName)
if voidP(i) = false then
s = Symbol(spriteName)
gSprites[s].member = member(“blank”)
gSprites[s].locH = 0
gSprites[s].locV = 0
gSprites.deleteOne(gSprites[s])
return true
else
return false
end if
end

on gSprite spriteName
return gSprites[Symbol(spriteName)]
end
</code></pre>

Now, if you want to use it, just do:
<pre><code>
— attach
mySprite = attachSprite(“MemberName”, “spriteString”, 1)
mySprite.locH = 320
mySprite.locV = 240
— remove
removeSprite(“spriteString”)
</code></pre>

And, instead of that sprite(5) bs, you can do:
<pre><code>
gSprites[#spriteString].locH = 5
–or, if your not familiar with Symbols in Director
gSprites[Symbol(“spriteString”)].locH = 5
— or
gSprite(“spriteString”).locH = 5
</code></pre>

:: extends chin ::
Tasty beef!

You have to implement via Decorator pattern (think that’s the one…) instead of using initialize, but so far, seems to work. The only issue is, I am still trying to figure out how to do Function.apply in Director… because currently, I’m just passing the parameters as an array to the call method; which was the point of Function.apply being able to have any number parameters passed as an array, and then doing the argument distribution for you. At any rate, here’s what I got:
<pre><code>
property pListeners

on new me
init()
return me
end

on init me
pListeners = []
end

on broadcastMessage me, msg
howMany = pListeners.count()
repeat with n = 1 to howMany
o = pListeners[n]
if o.handler(msg) = true then
l = paramCount()
a = []
repeat with i = 2 to l
a.append(param(i))
end repeat
call(Symbol(msg), o, a)
end if
end repeat

end

on addListener me, obj
pListeners.append(obj)
end

on removeListener me, obj
howMany = pListeners.count()
repeat with n = 1 to howMany
if pListeners[n] = obj then
pListeners.deleteProp(n)
return true
end if
end repeat
return false
end
</code></pre>

And you can implement in your Parent Scripts (or behaviors I guess) like so:
<pre><code>
property pBroadcaster

on new me
init()
end

on init me
pBroadcaster = script(“EventBroadcaster”).new()
end

on addListener me, obj
pBroadcaster.addListener(obj)
end

on removeListener me, obj
success = pBroadcaster.removeListener(obj)
return success
end

on broadcastMessage me, msg
pBroadcaster.broadcastMessage(msg, param1, paramN)
end
</code></pre>

…still, would be great to figure out how to pass dynamic amounts of parameters like you can in Flash using Function.apply…