Programming Notes

This section provides general programming notes when using WSF.

• The Platform List
• Platforms and Platform indices.

The Platform List

WsfSimulation maintains a list of all active platforms in the simulation. It includes methods for determining if a platform exists, iterating over all active platforms, etc.

Platforms and Platform indices.

Platforms may be destroyed during a simulation. Therefore, an object (simulation observer, another platform, etc.) must not retain a pointer to another platform as there is no way to guarantee that the platform will always exist. What should be retained is a 'platform index'.

When a platform is added to the simulation it is assigned a unique platform index that will never be reassigned during the simulation (Note: the platform index is not assigned until WsfSimulation::Initialize is called). The platform index for an active platform can be retrieved by:

unsigned int platformIndex = platformPtr->GetIndex();

Given a platform index, the address of the associated platform can be retrieved by:

WsfPlatform* WsfSimulation::GetPlatformByIndex(platformIndex)

The return value will be the pointer to the platform if it still exists or 0 if the platform has been removed from the simulation.

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