_G vs. getglobal problem/question

[Sythalin]

frame = "Minimap"

activeProfile[frame].width = getglobal(frame):GetWidth()

activeProfile[frame].width = _G[frame]:GetWidth()

_G is new to me, so I'm not exactly sure on what I'm doing here. The first one works, but the second one doesn't. Yet..

activeProfile[frame].scale = _G[frame]:GetScale()
activeProfile[frame].level = _G[frame]:GetFrameLevel()
activeProfile[frame].strata = _G[frame]:GetFrameStrata()

All work just fine. I'm confused.

[Samsan]

From what I've been reading the _G is suppose to be the same as getGlobal and will be fully replacing it, but not sure myself. I tend to go with what works...lol I'm not much help there...sorry

[Sythalin]

Actually, getglobal() isn't working for me anymore either. Some crap has apparently changed with the last patch, cause everything was working just peachy pre-patch, now nothing is working. Considering I was supposed to release this tonight, I'm kinda pissed.

[Samsan]

I can understand that...could explain why my mod suddenly stopped as well. I truly hope u can work it out.. I also posted the snips for you

[Sythalin]

Apparently some code cleanup changed how some things were referenced. All is working fine. I'll take a look at your snippets as soon as I get this thing wrapped up.

[Samsan]

Np and thx...I appreciate your time.

[Seerah]

iirc (you can look on wowcompares.com or at the code yourself if you wish to confirm) getglobal() is merely

function getglobal(var)
     return _G[var]
end

(or it might have a tostring() in there...)

Using _G[blah] is the same as getglobal() - just remember that whatever you use in the _G table lookup must be a string (or a variable that references a string).

example of _G lookup code:

print(_G["ChatFrame1"])
     ChatFrame1
print(_G[ChatFrame1])
     nil
for i = 1,3 do print(_G["ChatFrame"..i]) end
     ChatFrame1
     ChatFrame2
     ChatFrame3

[haste]

The reason that WoW has getglobal is because _G wasn't exposed to us until 2.0. Before that some of us used local _G = getfenv(0) to get a hold of it. We got access to _G as a global during the transition from Lua 5.0 to Lua 5.1.

The function is defined on the C side of things, but its probably just what Seerah stated above.

The main difference between the two is that getglobal() is a function call, while _G is just a table lookup. So all in all it's just a minor performance difference.

Another thing that should be said is that Blizzard is phasing out the use of getglobal() in favor for _G, but they aren't likely to remove getglobal(). If anything it will probably be moved to the FrameXML.

[kraftman]

Originally Posted by ChaosInc frame = "Minimap" activeProfile[frame].width = getglobal(frame):GetWidth() activeProfile[frame].width = _G[frame]:GetWidth() _G is new to me, so I'm not exactly sure on what I'm doing here. The first one works, but the second one doesn't. Yet.. activeProfile[frame].scale = _G[frame]:GetScale() activeProfile[frame].level = _G[frame]:GetFrameLevel() activeProfile[frame].strata = _G[frame]:GetFrameStrata() All work just fine. I'm confused.

assuming your frame is created by CreateFrame() (and isn't a string with a misleading name) then you dont need _G[] to get stuff from it. For example with

local frame = CreateFrame("Frame", "MyTestFrame", UIParent)

you can either do

activeProfile[frame].scale = frame:GetScale()

or

activeProfile[frame].scale = MyTestFrame:GetScale()

the first one doesnt need _G[] because it uses a local pointer to the frame you have create, the second doesnt need _G[] because it is using the global name of the frame.

An example of where you would need _G would be

for i = 1, 5 do
local f= CreateFrame("Frame", "MyTestFrame"..i, UIParent)
end

for i = 1, 5 do
activeProfile[frame..i].scale = _G["MyTestFrame"..i]:GetScale()
end

[Sythalin]

Thanks for the responses, explanations and all that but, um....

Originally Posted by ChaosInc Apparently some code cleanup changed how some things were referenced. All is working fine....