Hi again Stephen,
I wanted to make you look for meanings rather than me handing them to you
on a plate. Then I'd come back after to fill in any gaps. Best for learning
that way, even if it's a bit puzzling for you in the meantime. :-)
I mentioned the collection because it's just what you need in that reset
loop! It doesn't matter in this sort of program, of course, but I'm interested
in you learning principles as well as getting your code working.
Namely:
Having taken the trouble to create a collection containing <only> the
tic-tac labels, what do you do with it? And then when it comes to clearing the
labels, how many Controls do you check? That's one part of it. The other part,
which you wouldn't realise on your test setup, is that there may be other
labels on the Form, such as "Player 1", "Player 2". These would get wiped
too!! Oops.
Regarding the 'while' loop. I can assure you that it didn't work for me.
Not because I plonked it onto my form and messed it up, but because there was
a logic error in your code. That's why I asked about the equivalent 'for'
loop. I also wanted you to tell me whether your 'while' loop matches the 'for'
loop. (It doesn't - but why? Learning point: How 'while' and 'for' are not
always the same.)
strPlayer - presumably it was initially a string variable. Now it's a
Boolean. But a reader of your code will wionder - did he forget to change the
"str" to "t" (truth) or "f" (flag) or "b" (boolean) or whatever is your choice
for a Boolean. I've got no problem with your choice of a Boolean for a
two-state variable! But change the type and change the name is a handy habit
to develop early on.
In fact developing a style and becoming habitually consistent is very
important. I notice that you have the following:
strBoolean - lower-case type and capitalised type, but no name.
mLabelCollectio n m for member, capitalised type, capitalised name, but
only a sort of name.
objLabel - lower case type, but no name.
intx - lowercase everything
TTT1Label. - upper case name, capitalised type.
strBoolean - it's a Boolean give it a 't' (that's my style, many would
disagree, but 'b' and 'f' are already taken in my scheme). That says it all as
regards type. So what should its name be? Well, it controls whose turn it is.
It also controls which type of mark is made (X or O). Which is the central
concept? At the moment it's the mark. But, if later you decide to allow Player
1 to choose whether they'd like to be X or O, then it directly controls the
player's turn but only indirectly the mark - you'd use it to index an array of
Marks - one for each player. But that wouldn't work because it's a Boolean -
an integer would be better. So let's change it to, say, iPlayerToGo. And place
asMarks (iPlayerToGo) in the tic-tak grid. ["asMarks" is 'a', an array, of
's', strings, containing 'Marks' the marks made by the players. Or whatever
word you prefer.]
All that discussion over just a single variable. Is it worth it? Tell me
what you think.
mLabelCollectio n, TTT1Label, ObjLabel. These are all labels. It's common
to have control types abbreviated in lower case at the front. There's a
Microsoft recommended list somewhere in the Help. For labels you'd use "lbl".
Which gives us mlblCollection, lblTTT1 and lblObj. Still not there yet.
mlblCollection. Some people like to separate the 'm' with an underscore.
Now, what is it a collection of? Not labels. That's how whatever they are is
<implemented> but that's not what they <are>. They are in fact squares, or
places or whatever, on your tic-tac-toe board. Labels is a computery thing.
But your game is a human thing. Choose the human names over the computery
names. So that gives us "m_lblSquar es". Note the use of the plural. This
indicates that it's not a single sqaure. Some people like to have "coll"
instead. "m_colllblSquar es" or "m_collSqua res" and who cares about the
labelness, or "m_alblSqua res" because it's an array of labels.
Tomorrow you might rewrite your program using PictureBoxes instead of
labels. "m_collSqau res" would survive untouched. Anything with "lbl" would
have to be changed to "pic". [Remember strBoolean - that didn't survive the
change from string]. So a name that is implementation free can be better.
There are those who go for that approach.
Well, that's enough to put in your pipe for now. I'm not saying which
style you should develop. My own style has developed and changed over many
years. It has never conformed to Microsoft's (I got there first, lol). Many
others have different styles. You are just beginning to develop a style.
Ponder on it. Adapt it. Be consistent but prepared to change it when
necessary.
This applies to code layout as well. There's a bit that you did that I
particularly liked. It doesn't show well here so I'm going to edit it a bit.
Private Sub PlacePlayersMar ker(.....) _
Handles TTT1.Click, TTT2.Click, TTT3.Click, _
TTT4l.Click, TTT5.Click, TTT6.Click, _
TTT7l.Click, TTT8l.Click, TTT9.Click
You broke the line <before> the Handles. This means that anyone looking at
the next line will immediately see it there. This leaves only one
interpretation for TTT1.Click - it is an event being handled. Had you left it
out, the next line would have started with TTT1.Click. Now is that an event
being handled or is it a method being called? It's only a small point but a
bit of careful thought can save someone tripping up. Some will say that that's
too trivial. [I call it subtle :-)]. As you develop your style and think about
all these "little points" you get to develop code which has a clarity that
will be appreciated without even being noticed.
Here's another example:
If tTheHouseIsOnFi re And tTheresNoPhone And _
eDistanceToNeig hbour = eDistances.TooF arToWalk Then
JumpInTheCarAnd DriveLikeHell (GrabTheKeysOnT heWayOut())
vs.
If tTheHouseIsOnFi re And tTheresNoPhone _
And eDistanceToNeig hbour = eDistances.TooF arToWalk Then
JumpInTheCarAnd DriveLikeHell (GrabTheKeysOnT heWayOut())
In the first case you see the assignment "eDistanceToNei ghbour = ..." and
finally notice the Then at the end which makes you realise that it's <not> as
assignment.
In the second you see the "And" first and know immediately that it can't
be an assignment.
Subtle. Trivial. What do you think ?
Anyway, that's enough for now. :-)
All the best,
Fergus.
ps. You'll have noticed that I like long variable names and 'If ' statements
that read like a sentence.
