Bad Javascript

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Now that I have my PlayerList object in each browser that encapsulates access to the list of players other than me, I need to user that in the fab.js/comet code that drives players. In the function that broadcasts to all listeners, I access the player being moved in the window's parent (this is comet rendered in an iframe):

function broadcast(obj) {
  listeners.forEach(
    function(listener) {
      var body = '<script type="text/javascript">' + "\nif (console) console.debug('" + obj.body + "')\n</script>\n";
      listener({body: body});

      body = '<script type="text/javascript">' + "\n" +
        "var attrs = " + obj.body + ";\n" +
        "window.parent.player_list.add_player(attrs);\n" +
        "var player = window.parent.player_list.get_player(attrs.id);" +
        "if (typeof(player) != 'undefined') {\n" +
        "  player.walk_to(attrs.x, attrs.y);\n" +
        "}" +
        "</script>\n";
      listener({body: body});
    }
  );
}

The add_player method is silently ignored if the player is already a member of the room (or is me):

PlayerList.prototype.add_player = function(obj) {
  if (!this.other_players[obj.id] && obj.id != this.me.id) {
    if (console) {console.debug("adding:" + obj.id);}
    this.other_players[obj.id] = new Player(obj.id, obj);
  }
};

The walk_to method is already a working method on Player so I should be good to go. Except I am not.

Sadly, I spend the bulk of my night tracking down a problem that boils down to this: in Javascript, do not give the same name to both a method and a property. By way of example, when I try to obtain the list of other players, this is bad:

PlayerList.prototype.others = function() {
  var ret = [];
  for (var id in this.others) {
    ret.push(this.others[id]);
  }
  return ret;
};

After renaming the object property to other_players, I eventually get the code mostly working. Mostly, except the fab.js broadcast code is only broadcasting to one client. I will pick up with that next.

Day #99