Silly boo question

Unity Engine
1

Hi!
I just got the Unity trial yesterday and have been cramming it into my brain. I’m familiar with python, but I never got into Java-types or C-types, so I figure I’ll be more comfortable with Boo.

Unfortunately, as is well known, all of the example scripts are in Javascript, and while I’m able to translate a good amount of it into Boo, I’m still not completely fluent in boo, so I miss things.

one thing I haven’t been able to figure out:

In an example script, the java script reads

target : Transform;
function Update () {
    target.Translate(0, 1, 0);
}

which gives a variable exposed in the inspector that you can drag an object onto, to reference.

I translated that into this for boo:

import UnityEngine


class Camscript (MonoBehaviour): 
	public test as GameObject;
	def Start ():		
		pass
	def Update ():
		test.transform.Translate(0,1,0);

Which seems to work fine, apart from the fact that it gives me the error “UnityException: You are not allowed to call this function when declaring a variable.”

Can anyone tell me why that error pops up, and how I can fix it? The script doesn’t seem to run improperly.

2

Are you sure it’s that script causing the error? Because it should be fine.

–Eric

3

Its the only script I have in use or open to edit. I’ve also gotten the same exception error from equally simple scripts that also work.

Thanks for the reply!

4

As Eric5h5 said, the code should work.

When running your code, the only time I get an error is when I do not set ‘test’ to refer to a GameObject, but its an ‘UnassignedReferenceException’.

Hmmm …

Is the “UnityException; …” the complete error message? Look in the Editor Log file (Help->Open Editor Log File). What is the complete exception text?

5

Thats the full console exception. I’ve been able to largely ignore it since it doesn’t hinder runtime, but I’ve hit another obstacle caused by it. As of now, it refers to line six in the following code:

import UnityEngine

class sc_sselect (MonoBehaviour): 
	
	clicked = false
	zoomtarget = transform.Find("zoom")  //<----------
	zpos = zoomtarget.position
	selected = false
	chcount = transform.childCount
	
	def Start():
		pass
		
	def OnMouseDown():
		clicked = true	
		
		
		
	def Update():
		if clicked:
			SendMessageUpwards("CamZoom",zpos) //<--- zpos toss
			BroadcastMessage("CamZoom")
			clicked = false
			selected = true						
		

		zoomout = Input.GetKey("space")
		if zoomout:
			selected = false
			SendMessageUpwards("CamReset")
			BroadcastMessage("CamReset")
			
		if selected:
			SendMessageUpwards("StarLock",zpos)

After a while of paying no mind to the error, I couldn’t figure out why my ‘zpos’ toss was returning an empty vector to the higher powers. I fiddled with the process a bit, broke the position grab to a second line, and only recently discovered that the error found on line 6 would prevent the transform from being found, much less moved along the variables.

A more confusing matter to me is this: in debugging, I added the ‘chcount’ variable to count children (of which there are two), and it’s always read as 0. So this object, for whatever reason, does not accept the responsibility of parenthood.

This isn’t an insurmountable problem, since the ‘zpos’ I’m going for is really only +(0,20,0) consistently, so I can throw that static variable up instead… but I expect that it’d only be delaying an inevitable impasse if I can’t find a true solution.

p.s.
While the chcount shows no children, the broadcast does find its way to them. the chcount declaration is probably errored in the same way as the zoomtarget declaration… =P

6

Basically, when declaring global variables, you just want to stick to declaring them and not “run code” on them. You’d write that as

class sc_sselect (MonoBehaviour): 
   zoomtarget as Transform
   
   def Start ():       
      zoomtarget = transform.Find("zoom")

And generally you don’t want to ignore errors. :wink: If you click on the error (which will only be the most recent one), it will bring up the console which shows all errors.

–Eric

7

While I had hoped that boo retained the ease of instant declaration that python has, I thought it might be something like that, what with a few warnings here and there in Unity about constructor fields and the start() field, so I rearranged things like so:

import UnityEngine

class sc_sselect (MonoBehaviour): 
	
	zpos as Vector3  //<----- same error
	chcount as int 
	clicked as bool
	selected as bool	

	def Start():
		zpos = transform.Find("zoom").position
		chcount = transform.childCount
		clicked = false
		selected = false
		
	def OnMouseDown():
		clicked = true;	
				
	def Update():
		if clicked:
			SendMessageUpwards("CamZoom",zpos)	
			BroadcastMessage("CamZoom")
			clicked = false;
			selected = true;					
		
		zoomout = Input.GetKey("space")
		if zoomout:
			selected = false
			SendMessageUpwards("CamReset")
			BroadcastMessage("CamReset")
			
		if selected:
			SendMessageUpwards("StarLock",zpos)

I still get the error, referring me to the zpos declaration.
When I get rid of variables, trying to make it simpler, it’ll even point the error to the bool declarations. Once it pointed to a blank line between the pass of the start(), and the def update(). All in all I’m starting to feel rather gullible, like the code is teasing me :roll:.

I tried with semicolons, and without. I’ll bet it’s something right in front of my nose. Thank you for all your effort!

8

Ahem

I um…

I never cleared my error console.

So I think a lot of that was me looking up the same error, after it was fixed.
you’re absolutely right, and it seems to work just fine now. Thanks so much!

9

As long as the variables are local you can still do things like

zpos = transform.Find("zoom").position

when declaring them…just not global variables. Also globals are fine with simple assignments, like

clicked = false

Glad you got it sorted though!

–Eric