[BAILOPAN]

iGANGNAM: Garbage collection is what would eliminate calls to CloseHandle() - it would determine when the handle is no longer in use and automatically close it.

[Mathias.]

Sorry to post again but I really want to know about the difference of using entity reference vs index, why would it hold a frame sometime by using a index? (from what we told me)

[VoiDeD]

Ent indexes aren't normally safe to store across game frames. The game could have possibly killed the entity that was in a given index and replaced it with another the following frame.

Entity references, however, store both the entity index and the serial number of that entity. So if the game changes the entity in your index, the entity reference allows you to compare the serial number to see if that's still the correct entity.

https://wiki.alliedmods.net/Entity_R...28SourceMod%29

[Mathias.]

Thanks allot for the information, I get it now.

[thesupremecommander]

So, just to confirm that I'm understanding it correctly... there isn't any built-in support for storing related information via a methodmap or a class, and any such support should be implemented by somehow relating and storing information via either methods in SourcePawn or via a C++ extension. Is that correct?

Also, what are the practical differences between methodmap and class (besides the stricter coercion)? Is/will there be any reason to use class over methodmap?

[KissLick]

What I understood about method maps is that, you can't store any vars in them. It's just list of methods for their data type (like increment/decrement method for integer or upper string/lower string for string).

So, if you want to store any vars you must use class.

[asherkin]

methodmap's are the transitional syntax for natives, class has the stricter requirements and will become the first-class object (and will have storage in the future, methodmap's never will).

[splewis]

Has there been any consideration of adding something akin to namespaces? I guess the primary purpose would be avoid having to prefix functions from extensions/plugin natives with another name.

I'm wondering if splitting those functions into another methodmap/class would help, though.

[thesupremecommander]

Ah, that makes sense. Is there any recommended way to implement classes with storage in preparation for a future release in which the storage will be built in?

[BAILOPAN]

@splewis: Yeah, shoving things into methodmaps can help alleviate global namespace poisoning. Namespaces are a great idea though. I hadn't considered them for the transitional syntax. I think I could do those pretty easily.