Q: Why should I write functions?
A: Functions allow you to break up your programs into logical pieces. These pieces result in smaller, more manageable chunks of code, which are easier to work with than a single monolithic program.
Q: What’s encapsulation?
A: At its core, encapsulation is about keeping things separate. Function encapsulation provides that variables declared in a function are not accessible outside the function, for example.
Q: What’s the difference between an argument and a parameter?
A: An argument is what you use in a function call to pass a value to a function. A parameter is what you use in a function definition to accept values passed to a function.
Q: Can I have more than one ‘return’ statement in a function?
A: Sure. In fact, you might want multiple ‘return’ statements to specify different end points of a function.
Q: What’s a local variable?
A: A variable that’s defined in a scope. All variables defined in a function are local variables; they’re local to that function.
Q: What does it mean to hide a variable?
A: A variable is hidden when you declare it inside a new scope with the same name as a variable in an outer scope. As a result, you can’t get to the variable in the outer scope by using its variable name in the inner scope.
Q: When does a variable go out of scope?
A: A variable goes out of scope when the scope in which it was created ends.
Q: What does it mean when a variable goes out of scope?
A: It means the variable ceases to exist.
Q: What’s a nested scope?
A: A scope created within an existing scope.
Q: Must an argument have the same name as the parameter to which it’s passed?
A: No. You’re free to use different names. It’s only the value that’s passed from a function call to a function.
Q: Can I write one function that calls another?
A: Of course. In fact, whenever you write a function that you call from ‘main()’, you’re doing just that. In addition, you can write a function (other than ‘main()’) that calls another function.
Q: What is code profiling?
A: It’s the process of recording how much CPU time various parts of a program use.
Q: Why profile code?
A: To determine any bottlenecks in a program. Sometimes it makes sense to revisit these sections of code in an attempt to optimize them.
Q: When do programmers profile code?
A: Usually toward the end of the programming of a game project.
Q: What’s premature optimization?
A: An attempt to optimize code too early in the development process. Code optimization usually makes sense near the end of programming a game project.