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//
// If you thought the last exercise was a deep dive, hold onto your
// hat because we are about to descend into the computer's molten
// core.
//
// (Shouting) DOWN HERE, THE BITS AND BYTES FLOW FROM RAM TO THE CPU
// LIKE A HOT, DENSE FLUID. THE FORCES ARE INCREDIBLE. BUT HOW DOES
// ALL OF THIS RELATE TO THE DATA IN OUR ZIG PROGRAMS? LET'S HEAD
// BACK UP TO THE TEXT EDITOR AND FIND OUT.
//
// Ah, that's better. Now we can look at some familiar Zig code.
//
// @import() adds the imported code to your own. In this case,
// compiled code from the standard library is added to your program.
// It is loaded into RAM with the code you write when it runs. And
// that thing we give a const name? That's a struct!
const std = @import("std");
// Remember our old RPG Character struct? A struct is really just a
// very convenient way to deal with memory. These fields (gold,
// health, experience) are all values of a particular size. Add them
// together and you have the size of the struct as a whole.
const Character = struct {
gold: u32 = 0,
health: u8 = 100,
experience: u32 = 0,
};
// Here we create a character called "the_narrator" that is a constant
// (immutable) instance of a Character struct. It is stored in your
// program as data, and like the instruction code, it is loaded into
// RAM when your program runs. The relative location of this data in
// memory is hard-coded and neither the address nor the value changes.
const the_narrator = Character{
.gold = 12,
.health = 99,
.experience = 9000,
};
// This "global_wizard" character is very similar. The address for
// this data won't change, but the data itself can since this is a var
// and not a const.
var global_wizard = Character{};
// A function is instruction code at a particular address. Function
// parameters in Zig are always immutable. They are stored in "the
// stack". A stack is a type of data structure and "the stack" is a
// specific bit of RAM reserved for your program. The CPU has special
// support for adding and removing things from "the stack", so it is
// an extremely efficient place for memory storage.
//
// Also, when a function executes, the input arguments are often
// loaded into the beating heart of the CPU itself in registers.
//
// Our main() function here has no input parameters, but it will have
// a stack entry (called a "frame").
pub fn main() void {
// Here, the "glorp" character will be allocated on the stack
// because each instance of glorp is mutable and therefore unique
// to the invocation of this function.
var glorp = Character{
.gold = 30,
};
// However, this "skull_farmer" character will be put in the
// global immutable data even though it's defined in a function.
// Since it's immutable, all invocations of the function can share
// this one value.
const skull_farmer = Character{};
// The "reward_xp" value is interesting. It's a constant value, so
// it could go with other global data. But being such a small
// value, it may also simply be inlined as a literal value in your
// instruction code where it is used. It's up to the compiler.
const reward_xp: u32 = 200;
// Now let's circle back around to that "std" struct we imported
// at the top. Since it's just a regular Zig value once it's
// imported, we can also assign new names for its fields. The
// "debug" field refers to another struct. And "print" is a public
// function namespaced within THAT struct.
//
// Let's assign the std.debug.print function to a const named
// "print" so that we can use this new name later!
const print = ???;
// Now let's look at assigning and pointing to values in Zig.
//
// We'll try three different ways of making a new name to access
// our glorp Character and change one of its values.
//
// "glorp_access1" is incorrectly named! We asked Zig to set aside
// memory for another Character struct. So when we assign glorp to
// glorp_access1 here, we're actually assigning all of the fields
// to make a copy! Now we have two separate characters.
//
// You don't need to fix this. But notice what gets printed in
// your program's output for this one compared to the other two
// assignments below!
var glorp_access1: Character = glorp;
glorp_access1.gold = 111;
print("1:{}!. ", .{glorp.gold == glorp_access1.gold});
// NOTE:
//
// If we tried to do this with a const Character instead of a
// var, changing the gold field would give us a compiler error
// because const values are immutable!
//
// "glorp_access2" will do what we want. It points to the original
// glorp's address. Also remember that we get one implicit
// dereference with struct fields, so accessing the "gold" field
// from glorp_access2 looks just like accessing it from glorp
// itself.
var glorp_access2: *Character = &glorp;
glorp_access2.gold = 222;
print("2:{}!. ", .{glorp.gold == glorp_access2.gold});
// "glorp_access3" is interesting. It's also a pointer, but it's a
// const. Won't that disallow changing the gold value? No! As you
// may recall from our earlier pointer experiments, a constant
// pointer can't change what it's pointing AT, but the value at
// the address it points to is still mutable! So we CAN change it.
const glorp_access3: *Character = &glorp;
glorp_access3.gold = 333;
print("3:{}!. ", .{glorp.gold == glorp_access3.gold});
// Passing arguments to functions is pretty much exactly like
// making an assignment to a const (since Zig enforces that ALL
// function parameters are const).
//
// Knowing that, see if you can make levelUp() work as expected -
// it should add the specified amount to the supplied character's
// experience points:
print("XP before:{}, ", .{glorp.experience});
levelUp(glorp, reward_xp);
print("after:{}.\n", .{glorp.experience});
}
fn levelUp(character_access: Character, xp: u32) void {
character_access.experience += xp;
}
// And there's more!
//
// Data segments (allocated at compile time) and "the stack"
// (allocated at run time) aren't the only places where program data
// can be stored in memory. They're just the most efficient. Sometimes
// we don't know how much memory our program will need until the
// program is running. Also, there is a limit to the size of stack
// memory allotted to programs (often set by your operating system).
// For these occasions, we have "the heap".
//
// You can use as much heap memory as you like (within physical
// limitations, of course), but it's much less efficient to manage
// because there is no built-in CPU support for adding and removing
// items as we have with the stack. Also, depending on the type of
// allocation, your program MAY have to do expensive work to manage
// the use of heap memory. We'll learn about heap allocators later.
//
// Whew! This has been a lot of information. You'll be pleased to know
// that the next exercise gets us back to learning Zig language
// features we can use right away to do more things!
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