Vector math & functions

[francois]

In the initial Mindcode grammar, there was a place for vectors: (x, y). With vectors, it is easier to manage coordinates, as we don't have to manually manage both parts of the vector. Instead of:

move(core1.x, core1.y)

we could write something like:

move(core.position)

@schittli, in #9, reported that many functions weren't implemented yet, including len and angle vector functions. I wonder if this is a great time to implement vector operations. I was thinking of similar to this:

delta = (3, -2)
approach(core.position + delta, 3)
mine(core.position + delta)

pos = core.position
result = pos + delta
mine(result)

The above would convert into something equivalent to:

set tmp0 3
set tmp1 -2
sensor tmp2 core @x
sensor tmp3 core @y
op add tmp4 tmp0 tmp2
op add tmp5  tmp1 tmp3
ucontrol approach tmp4 tmp5 3 0 0
ucontrol mine tmp4 tmp5 0 0 0

set result_x tmp4
set result_y tmp5
ucontrol mine result_x result_y 0 0 0

Given the above, we could also implement len and angle using:

core.position.len
core.position.angle

The purpose of adding vectors, and the associated additional complexity in the language and implementation, is be to reduce the number of arguments to function calls, and to make developer's lives easier. Of course, adding vectors means that Mindcode doesn't map 1:1 with Mindustry Logic anymore, and would need more documentation. It's not like Mindustry Logic has tons of documentation, but still... it's more work on our end.

In addition, adding vectors means Mindcode needs to become a typed language. At the moment, Mindcode doesn't really care about types. Mindustry Logic handles everything on its own. Adding vectors means we need to track types, so that the Logic generation code knows to use vectors in one case, and plain old numeric operations in the next.

@ByMartrixx, @schittli, what do you think? Can you think of something that vectors enable that can't be done currently, or would be very awkward to implement right now? If you can find a couple of examples, I would start work on tracking types and implementing vectors.

Thanks, and have a great day!

[francois]

I have decided against vectors for now. Nothing prevents them from being added later.