Codea detects clearly defined var as nil

Hi all,

I’m running into a strange problem here. Underneath is the relevant part of the code:

function Field:touched(t)
    print(t)    --Prints touch info
    if self.istouching(t) and self.curt == 0 and t.state == BEGAN then
        self.curt = t
        self.t1 = vec2(t.x, t.y)
    end
    
    if t == self.curt and t.state == ENDED then
        self.t2 = vec2(t.x, t.y)
        local dis = self.t2:dist(self.t1)
        if dis >= 10 then
            local v = vec2(1, 0)
            local dir = v:angleBewtileeen(t2 - t1)
            self.dirt = dir
        end
    end
end

function Field:istouching(t)
    print(t)    --Prints 'nil'
    return clamped(t.x, self.x, self.x + self.w) and clamped(t.y, self.y, self.y + self.h)
end

Somehow, when running this, it prints the touch information right the first time, but the second print command, from within istouching, gives nil. How is this possible? When passing ‘t‘ as an argument to istouching(t), nothing is supposed to change, right?

self.istouching(t) should be self:istouching(t).

Common mistake. In classes, you need to use a colon instead of a period.

If you use a colon, by default, the first parameter is actually self, and it’s hidden. Every time you use self in a class’s function, that local variable self is actually being passed in behind the scenes by the code that called the function. If you use a period, the first parameter is expected to be what the function should use as self. So it could also work as self.istouching(self, t).

Ouch, such a rookie mistake. I haven’t been using Codea for too long apparently.

Thanks a lot @SkyTheCoder!

@Kjell I don’t see the point in having another function that only has one line of code in it. If you’re having trouble with “istouching”, move that one line of code into the “touched” routine and delete the “istouching” function.

@dave1707, he could need to know whether it is being touched from another class, this way he can just call the function and find out.

@dave1707 isTouching is a good function to have, I call it toucht(t) for my classes, but I use it on every graphical object to tell if its being touched, so I can call it from anywhere in that project if the class is defined

OK, I stand corrected. I was just commenting on the code that was being shown.