Improvement to exports

[CrosRoad95]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I want to improve exports because are very neglected.
List of ideas i would add/change in current export system.

1. meta.xml contain static exports list. You can manipulate exports list via mta functions.

2. you can export functions in table using dot. example:
   <export function="myFunctions.func1" type="shared"/>
   and you can use this by
   call( resource, "myFunctions.func1", arg1, arg2, ... )

3. you can export variables too ( in table too like above ). <export variable="variableName" type="shared" readonly="true"/> readonly argument means do you can overwrite this variable

4. event called every exported variable changed. cancelEvent makes that variable will not change

5. functions to manipulate exports:
   addExport( function/string theFunction [, bool readOnly = true ] ) -- for adding new exports, script will detect if this is function or variable. if you provide function, script check function name, and do this function is in table. If you provide table, then all function and variables will be added.
   deleteExport( function/string theFunction ) -- for deleting exports. * cause delete every exports
   getVariable( resource, variableName ) -- return value under variable in other resource
   setVariable( resource, variableName, newValue ) -- set value under variable in other resource. Return false if variable is readonly.
   event: onVariableChanged with arguments: variableName, oldValue, newValue and source = source of change.

6. Make possible to exports memes.

if you have suggestion, please describe in comment.

[znvjder]

Currently exports are interpreted by lua code so it can be slower than call().
The OnVariableChanged event is purely technically useless, it would only spam with newly created variables.
Just add require function or something that. Loads resource and you can read code from it, something like headers in cpp.

[Pirulax]

Adding 'onVariableChanged' is near to impossible, as simple variables dont have metatables.
The only way would be to force variables to be declared as global, because then they'd be in _G to which we can add a metatable, atlough that would slow thing down a lot, so.. Not recommended.

I think the variable change side of this issue can be closed.

As for the addExport and deleteExport part:
Not a bad idea, but I dont see any benefit from it.
Could you give us some examples where it would be useful?

[botder]

Is this feature still needed or can this be closed?

[thisdp]

Adding 'onVariableChanged' is near to impossible, as simple variables dont have metatables. The only way would be to force variables to be declared as global, because then they'd be in _G to which we can add a metatable, atlough that would slow thing down a lot, so.. Not recommended.

I think the variable change side of this issue can be closed.

As for the addExport and deleteExport part: Not a bad idea, but I dont see any benefit from it. Could you give us some examples where it would be useful?

to prevent meta.xml from thousands of lines just for exporting functions.