CCNode's getChildByName is not recursive about cocos2d-objc HOT 12 CLOSED

The reason I didn't implement it recursively was that the getChildByTag wasn't recursive. But, I think it's can be reasonable to expect it to be.

from cocos2d-objc.

Or there could be a getChildByTag:(int)tag recursively:(bool)isRecursive and similar for searching by name. At least that's what I did in few of my extensions.

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Hmm. I was on the fence about it. Looking at the docs for the similar GameObject.Find() method in Unity I found this:
"This function is most useful to automatically connect references to other objects at load time (...)"

I usually avoid using that feature in Unity since it's so easy to make bugs by simple misspellings of strings scattered around the project. I guess I do use it to find child objects in things that I instantiate, and that's a use case that will carry over to SpriteBuilder pretty well I think. So I guess I would say making it recursive makes sense.

Unity also lets you use a path-like string too. ex: "ship/thruster1". That might be something to consider for the future, but it's not really a trivial feature to add.

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I like getChildByTag:(int)tag recursively:(bool)isRecursive more than having two versions of the method, since no one will ever use the wrong one accidentally. And most importantly, it clears up incorrect assumptions, like the one I had. I don't have a huge preference other than that.

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Using more than one version is very natural for Objective-C programmers. They will definitely see both, and the amount of confusion will be at least less than addChild:z:tag:, since that method has 3 versions.

The reason I would push for two versions is the convenience of using methods with single arguments in objective-c. When you so a CCCallFunc, you can pass a single object, so if the method requires more than one objects, it cannot be used. The same applied to the Objective-C methods performSelecter:.

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I like getChildByTag:(int)tag recursively:(bool)isRecursive too. I think that one method would be enough, Cocos2d often adds too many aliases for the same thing, which imho makes things harder to use not easier.

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Here's what I whipped together:

andykorth@2b08f0e

At the moment it has a recursive getChildByTag:(int)tag recursively:(bool)isRecursive and a getChildByTag:(int)tag recursively:(bool)isRecursive. I'll wait for a few more opinions before deciding if we want both.

(Hey look, there's unit tests in there!)

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@vlidholt Agreed. I feel like in many cases it's common to have many aliased methods because they were added over time. Unless the method has 5 arguments, it's a lot cleaner to have fewer methods if each one isn't trying to do too much.

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@andykorth So, there was a decision made to replace the tag property by a name property, so I don't think we should reinstate the tag. In the link you sent I don't see any tags so I am happy with that! Just double check that the old method isn't used inside Cocos somewhere.

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Oops, I'm not sure how the word tag snuck into my github comment. Definitely names.

I'll wrap this up today and go with one method instead of two. Thanks!

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Shouldn't this have a default for existing behaviour instead of having to add 'recursively' all the time?

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The overall consensus from earlier in the discussion was that we should avoid adding method aliases for new methods. In this case the method wasn't completely new (tag -> name). With auto-complete, Xcode does most of the typing for you at least?

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