Godot: Idea: make math functions work on vectors

[Zylann]

It would be nice and efficient to be able to use math functions (clamp, max, sin etc) also on Vector2 and Vector3 types, like in GLSL.

So instead of writing this:

    var turn_max = Vector2(deg2rad(turn_max_deg.x), deg2rad(turn_max_deg.y))

We could write simply this:

    var turn_max = deg2rad(turn_max_deg)

Which is also faster to execute due to DRY-ness and the possibility for component-wise operations to be executed natively ;)

Another example:

    var turn_max = Vector2(deg2rad(turn_max_deg.x), deg2rad(turn_max_deg.y))
    _turn_cmd = Vector2(clamp(mouse_cmd.x, -turn_max.x, turn_max.x), \
                            clamp(mouse_cmd.y, -turn_max.y, turn_max.y))

Becomes:

    var turn_max = deg2rad(turn_max_deg)
    _turn_cmd = clamp(turn_cmd, -turn_max, turn_max)

[karroffel]

Generally I support this idea, but in the special case of GDScript it's not ideal.

GDScript doesn't have overloaded methods, this would need to be either treated like a special case or overloaded functions would have to be implemented which isn't planned AFAIK.

Making the functions accept Variant instead of float/double would be an easy fix but would make them slower.

[Zylann]

I am writing helpers at the moment, which are slower anyways^^

[LikeLakers2]

@karroffel

GDScript doesn't have overloaded methods

Does it really not? I'm looking at the docs for the float, int, and bool built-in types, and they all overload their respective casting function. Are they just special cases, or...?

[karroffel]

Those are indeed special cases, similar with constructors for build in types. Script defined methods can't be overloaded, also overloading makes less (I don't say no) sense in a dynamically typed language anyway.

[Zylann]

@karroffel In the specific case of GDScript I don't think we even talk about "overloading" in the same sense of C++/C#, but something that behaves like it and solves the same use case, which involves accepting a Variant parameter as an implementation detail. If we can't do that to a scripting language we created especially for Godot then it's a bit of a waste^^"

[akien-mga]

Feature and improvement proposals for the Godot Engine are now being discussed and reviewed in a dedicated Godot Improvement Proposals (GIP) (godotengine/godot-proposals) issue tracker. The GIP tracker has a detailed issue template designed so that proposals include all the relevant information to start a productive discussion and help the community assess the validity of the proposal for the engine.

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