playMaker

Author Topic: Deactivating states  (Read 1362 times)

Broken Stylus

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Deactivating states
« on: February 28, 2020, 01:18:08 PM »
It would be nice to be able to deactivate a state instead of having to deactivate the actions inside the state one by one.

A deactivated state would act as if it didn't have any action inside, or if all of them were inactive.

Somehow, the information about a or one more states being deactivated should be displayed somewhere so the user doesn't forget about them; first and foremost in the FSM itself. It should warrant a warning in the log too (but could be deactivated in the preferences). Perhaps a supplementary function could be added to the Tools window so as to display the number of deactivated and cycle through them (previous, next), perhaps displaying a quick list of the first three ones.

A deactivated state would have its appearance changed, perhaps with a semi-opaque overlay of oblique bands as if it were in repairs?
A "warning sign" notification could displayed in the top corner of the state too.

Broken Stylus

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Re: Deactivating states
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2020, 11:31:41 AM »
A deactivated state would be forced to use the FINISHED event.

However, for a state not using FINISHED but instead using custom events, one or more, what should the deactivated state do? Should the flux remain stuck in this state?

Should the state's first exit transition be automatically and temporarily treated as a FINISHED transition (first transition is temporarily replaced)?

What if the state doesn't link to other states but actually sends events to <self> over the air (linkless)? In this case, it should be a dead end.