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| raylib is a simple and easy-to-use library to enjoy videogames programing... but, **what makes the library simple and easy-to-use?** Considering that for many users the first contact with the library is its API, here it is a small analysis of the API from a **syntactic point of view**. How are the functions structured? Which words are used? How many parameters are exposed? How intuitive is it to understand or even guess every function/structure/enum when required? | |||||
| Syntax is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language, usually including word order. | |||||
| To do this analysis a [`raylib.h` parser](https://github.com/raysan5/raylib/tree/master/parser) has been created. That parser dissects API into small pieces; in the future it can also be useful for automatic docs and binding generation! | |||||
| The analysis is organized in 3 parts, one for each API element analyzed: | |||||
| - Functions: Instructions called by the users to make things happen | |||||
| - Structures (`struct`): Data types to organize information packages | |||||
| - Enumerators (`enum`): Sequence of values for a specific type of data | |||||
| ## Functions | |||||
| Latest raylib version in the moment of this writing (3.8-dev) exposes a total of **470 functions**, a relatively small API for a gamedev library. | |||||
| All raylib functions _try_ to follow this syntactic structure: | |||||
| ``` | |||||
| <Verb><Subject><Complement>(); | |||||
| ``` | |||||
| More specifically, every syntactic element implies: | |||||
| ``` | |||||
| <Action><Object><Attribute/State>(); // Do an Action over some Object Attribute/State | |||||
| ``` | |||||
| Following this rule make the API comprehensive, intuitive, easy-to-remember and easy-to-use. | |||||
| Checking the available functions with more detail, they can be divided into 3 groups: | |||||
| 1. Functions following a common pattern | |||||
| 2. Functions operating over specific type of data | |||||
| 3. Functions with unique pattern | |||||
| ### 1. Functions following a common pattern | |||||
| Most of the functions of the library go into this first group **(~360)**, there are some common `<Action>` that prepend the name of most of the functions: | |||||
| pattern | function format | API count | examples | |||||
| :--: | :----- | :---: | :---------- | |||||
| 01 | void Init*() | 3 | InitWindow(), InitAudioDevice(), InitAudioStream() | |||||
| 02 | void Close*() | 3 | CloseWindow(), CloseAudioDevice(), CloseAudioStream() | |||||
| 03 | void Begin*() | 8 | BeginDrawing(), BeginBlendMode() | |||||
| 04 | void End*() | 8 | EndDrawing(), EndBlendMode() | |||||
| 05 | TYPE Get*() | **79** | GetKeyPressed(), GetMouseX(), GetRayCollision*() | |||||
| 06 | void Set*() | **46** | SetWindowTitle(), SetTargetFPS(), SetMouseScale() | |||||
| 07 | bool Is*() | **33** | IsKeyPressed(), IsGamepadAvailable(), IsSoundPlaying() | |||||
| 08 | TYPE Gen<TYPE>*() | 20 | GenImage*(), GenMesh*() | |||||
| 09 | TYPE Load<TYPE>*() | **33** | LoadImage*(), LoadTexture*(), LoadSound*() | |||||
| 10 | void Unload<TYPE>*(<TYPE>) | 21 | UnloadImage(), UnloadTexture(), UnloadSound() | |||||
| 11 | void Update<TYPE>*(<TYPE>, *) | 8 | UpdateTexture(), UpdateCamera() | |||||
| 12 | bool Save*() | 3 | SaveFileData(), SaveFileText(), SaveStorageValue() | |||||
| 13 | bool Export*() | 5 | ExportImage(), ExportImageAsCode(), ExportMesh(), ExportWave(), ExportWaveAsCode() | |||||
| 14 | void Draw*() | **79** | DrawRectangle(), DrawTexture*(), DrawModel*() | |||||
| 15 | bool CheckCollision*() | 10 | CheckCollisionRecs(), CheckCollisionCircles(), CheckCollisionBoxSphere() | |||||
| ### 2. Functions operating over specific type of data | |||||
| Those functions operate over a specific data type, so, it was decided to prepend the `DataType` to the function name, they are an exception over the main syntax rule followed by the API: | |||||
| pattern | function format | API count | examples | |||||
| :--: | :----- | :---: | :---------- | |||||
| 01 | TYPE Color*() | 7 | ColorAlpha(), ColorFromHSV(), ColorToHSV() | |||||
| 02 | Image/void Image*() | **40** | ImageFormat(), ImageCrop(), ImageResize(), ImageFlipVertical() | |||||
| 03 | TYPE Text*() | **16** | TextFormat(), TextReplace(), TextSplit(), TextToLower() | |||||
| 04 | Mesh*() | 2 | MeshTangents(), MeshBinormals() | |||||
| 05 | Wave/void Wave*() | 3 | WaveFormat(), WaveCopy(), WaveCrop() | |||||
| _NOTE: Maybe some of them are renamed in the future for consistency._ | |||||
| ### 3. Functions with unique pattern | |||||
| Remaining functions **(43 in total)** follow a unique pattern, still, **most of them** follow the standard syntax pattern of `<Verb><Subject><Complement>`. | |||||
| ```c | |||||
| // core.c | |||||
| WindowShouldClose(); // Not following pattern | |||||
| ClearWindowState(); | |||||
| ToggleFullscreen(); | |||||
| MaximizeWindow(); | |||||
| MinimizeWindow(); | |||||
| RestoreWindow(); | |||||
| ShowCursor(); | |||||
| HideCursor(); | |||||
| EnableCursor(); | |||||
| DisableCursor(); | |||||
| ClearBackground(); | |||||
| TakeScreenshot(); | |||||
| TraceLog(); // Not following pattern | |||||
| MemAlloc(); // Data-type pattern? | |||||
| MemRealloc(); // Data-type pattern? | |||||
| MemFree(); // Data-type pattern? | |||||
| FileExists(); // Not following pattern -> IsFileAvailable()? | |||||
| DirectoryExists(); // Not following pattern -> IsDirectoryAvailable()? | |||||
| ClearDirectoryFiles(); | |||||
| ChangeDirectory(); | |||||
| ClearDroppedFiles(); | |||||
| CompressData(); | |||||
| DecompressData(); | |||||
| OpenURL(); | |||||
| // textures.c | |||||
| Fade(); // Left for backward compatibility, use ColorAlpha() instead | |||||
| // text.c | |||||
| MeasureText(); | |||||
| MeasureTextEx(); | |||||
| CodepointToUtf8(); // Not following pattern -> EncodeCodepointAsUtf8()? | |||||
| // models.c | |||||
| UploadMesh(); | |||||
| // raudio.c | |||||
| PlaySound(); | |||||
| StopSound(); | |||||
| PauseSound(); | |||||
| ResumeSound(); | |||||
| PlaySoundMulti(); | |||||
| StopSoundMulti(); | |||||
| PlayMusicStream(); | |||||
| StopMusicStream(); | |||||
| PauseMusicStream(); | |||||
| ResumeMusicStream(); | |||||
| PlayAudioStream(); | |||||
| StopAudioStream(); | |||||
| PauseAudioStream(); | |||||
| ResumeAudioStream(); | |||||
| ``` | |||||
| ### Functions naming | |||||
| Most functions in raylib use a maximum of 4 words | |||||
| ## Structures | |||||
| raylib defines a total of **31 struct data types**, most of those structs use a single word to define the type and some of them use two words. | |||||
| num | struct name | fields count | comments | |||||
| :--:| :---------: | :-------: | :-------- | |||||
| 01 | Vector2 | 2 | | |||||
| 02 | Vector3 | 3 | | |||||
| 03 | Vector4 | 4 | | |||||
| 04 | Matrix | 4 | | |||||
| 05 | Color | 4 | | |||||
| 06 | Rectangle | 4 | | |||||
| 07 | Image | 5 | | |||||
| 08 | Texture | 5 | | |||||
| 09 | RenderTexture | 3 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 10 | NPatchInfo | 6 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 11 | CharInfo | 5 | | |||||
| 12 | Font | 6 | | |||||
| 13 | Camera3D | 5 | | |||||
| 14 | Camera2D | 4 | | |||||
| 15 | Mesh | **15** | | |||||
| 16 | Shader | 2 | | |||||
| 17 | MaterialMap | 3 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 18 | Material | 3 | | |||||
| 19 | Transform | 3 | | |||||
| 20 | BoneInfo | 2 | | |||||
| 21 | Model | **9** | | |||||
| 22 | ModelAnimation| 4 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 23 | Ray | 2 | | |||||
| 24 | RayCollision | 4 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 25 | BoundingBox | 2 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 26 | Wave | 5 | | |||||
| 27 | AudioStream | 4 | _2 words name_ | |||||
| 28 | Sound | 2 | | |||||
| 29 | Music | 5 | | |||||
| 30 | VrDeviceInfo | **10** | _3 words name_ | |||||
| 31 | VrStereoConfig | **8** | _3 words name_ | |||||
| ## Enumerations | |||||
| num | enum name | values count | comments | |||||
| :--:| :---------: | :-------: | :-------- | |||||
| 01 | ConfigFlags | 14 | | |||||
| 02 | TraceLogLevel | 8 | _3 words name_ | |||||
| 03 | KeyboardKey | **110** | | |||||
| 04 | MouseButton | 8 | | |||||
| 05 | MouseCursor | 11 | | |||||
| 06 | GamepadButton | **18** | | |||||
| 07 | GamepadAxis | 6 | | |||||
| 08 | MaterialMapIndex | 11 | _3 words name_ | |||||
| 09 | ShaderLocationIndex | **26** | _3 words name_ | |||||
| 10 | ShaderUniformDataType | 9 | **_4 words name_** | |||||
| 11 | PixelFormat | **21** | | |||||
| 12 | TextureFilter | 6 | | |||||
| 13 | TextureWrap | 4 | | |||||
| 14 | CubemapLayout | 6 | | |||||
| 15 | FontType | 3 | | |||||
| 16 | BlendMode | 6 | | |||||
| 17 | Gestures | 11 | | |||||
| 18 | CameraMode | 5 | | |||||
| 19 | CameraProjection | 2 | | |||||
| 20 | NPatchLayout | 3 | _3 words name_ | |||||