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How to set variables from within Javascript in Sugarcube 2?
For example, if I want to set or initialize some variable within a script-tagged passage (like StoryInit).
I was thinking something like
But of course that's not working.
I was thinking something like
State.variables.foo = 'bar';
But of course that's not working.
Comments
Within the StoryInit special passage:
Within a script-tagged passage (or Story JavaScript in Twine 2):
For some reason I thought StoryInit was supposed to be a script-tagged passage. Not sure where I got that idea. So StoryInit should not be a script-tagged passage, and its main use is just to use it for initializing variables via Is that right?
For defining javascript functions, libraries, macros, as well as executing javascript that I want to run once at the beginning of a story, all of that should just be in a single separate script-tagged passage? (For example, if I want to modify the dom in some way, or define sound objects for use with Howler.js?)
And does all of that really need to be in a single script-tagged passage, or can multiple script-tagged passages be used? I'm writing my story in Twee and using StoryIncludes partly for git, and partly because I like being able to organize things in different files, and having to put all that javascript in a single passage/file is really a bummer from an organizational perspective...
Its use is for any kind of pre-start initialization—e.g. initializing variables via <<set>>, setting up audio via <<cacheaudio>>, etc.
Obviously, it has some crossover with script sections (Twine 1: script-tagged passages; Twine 2: Story JavaScript), since you may do various initialization tasks there as well.
The biggest differentiation between them is the basic language used. The StoryInit special passage uses SugarCube markup, while script sections use JavaScript—though StoryInit can always run JavaScript via <<script>>. StoryInit is also executed a bit later during the startup sequence.
Script sections are a good place for many of those things, yes.
Since you're using a Twine 1 workflow, however, they are not required to into a single script section (script-tagged passage)—you may split them amongst different script sections. If you do split them up, you must ensure that you do not attempt to reference something which is undefined at that point—i.e. the ordering of your script sections may be important. The ordering gotcha is, actually, why multiple script and stylesheet sections are, generally, frowned upon.
I understand the potential issue with referencing functions etc. that are not yet defined. Can't this be controlled fairly easily, though, by the order in which files are included in StoryIncludes?
Let's say each of those javascript.twee files contains a single script-tagged passage with some js functions, etc. defined. In the above example, I should be able to reference anything defined in javascript1.twee from javascript2.twee, since js2 is included later, right?
But the order TME is talking about is the order those script tagged passage get processed (converted from passage content into Javascript code and possible executed) when the HTML file is viewed in a web-browser.
Anyway. As greyelf noted, it's the order in which they're processed by the compiled story format which is what ultimately matters. There's no one "correct" way of doing this, so different story formats may, or may not, make guarantees about the order of execution. For example, SugarCube does guarantee that the order in which all "code" passages exist within the data store will be the order in which they're processed (by type)—by "code" passages I mean: script, stylesheet, and widget passages.
That said, the ordering within your files may be helpful in achieving the desired processing order. The sticking point is whether or not the compiler in question makes any guarantees about the ordering of your passages within the data store relative to the way your source was loaded by the compiler.
This is not an exhaustive list of Twine 1 style compilers:
EDIT: Some clarifications.
(as far as Twee vs Twine: I'm writing everything in Twee, but compiling via Twine 1.4, using the StoryIncludes passage. I don't remember why I'm doing this rather than compiling with Twee, though I think it might have had something to do with Twee not seeming to understand the StoryIncludes idea?)
You could also try TweeGo, which is a completely standalone Twee-like compiler compatible with your workflow. Like Twine 1 and Twee, it expects to be a sibling of your targets directory.