Canonical mod name

[raymoo]

3d_armor uses a global table (armor) which differs from the mod name, and mod conventions are not to create any globals other than a single global table with the name of your mod.

Since Lua variables can't start with a digit, fixing this would mean changing the mod name to "armor", or changing both the mod name and table name to something else.

[stujones11]

I really don't see this as a problem unless some other mod were to use a global table named armor.

[raymoo]

The problem as I see it is that someone else could make a mod called "armor", and then there would be no solution anymore but to change the table name, which would cause more breakage, since it is easier to change a line in depends than every reference to the table.

[stujones11]

There is already a mod called armor, by cornernote iirc, obviously it is not compatible with this mod.
I do understand what you are getting at, I just don't think it's worth changing now.

[BrunoMine]

I believe the name should really be changed. Mainly because of grobal table. It is also a good code organization.

[stujones11]

The only thing I could possibly do is change the name of the main mod to just armor, however, that name is already taken and duplicate mod names are discouraged iirc. Not only that, any other mod that depends on 3d_armor will be broken and there are a few that are unlikely to ever be updated.

[BrunoMine]

You're right, it really bad.

[rubenwardy]

You should rename armor to 3d_armor, then deprecate armor (but keep an alias for backwards compat, by doing armor = 3d_armor)

[raymoo]

@rubenwardy I don't think variables can start with a number in Lua. The mod name would have to be changed in addition to the table name (in which case the mod might as well be renamed armor)

[numberZero]

@rubenwardy we don’t want to write _G['3d_armor'] in place of armor. Mod name change is not very good too, although as this is a modpack, that should not be a great problem (it might include a stub mod named 3d_armor)—but is that really necessary?

[raymoo]

It's not necessary, neither is anything about code style or hygeine.

[stujones11]

but is that really necessary?

If another mod depends on '3d_armor' (which quite a few do) then it won't find it if I rename it to 'armor'. A stub mod might just work but that would defeat the whole object, wouldn't it? As would aliasing the namespace, these could never safely be removed as many of these depending mods are never likely to be updated.

Perhaps if I can compile a list of all depending release mods and at least see how many are still maintained, I may consider removal of the '3d' prefix from the main mod name, although that would still conflict with the original 'armor' mod by cornernote (iirc) I have no idea if that mod is still in release or is even usable with the current game.

Trust me, I would love to rip this whole thing up and start again but that would be disrespectful to all those who have contributed, hosted and use this in sub-games.