nSquirrel/doc/source/reference/language/execution_context.rst

.. _executioncontext:

=======================
Execution Context
=======================

.. index::
    single: execution context

The execution context is the union of the function stack frame and the function
environment object(this) and the function root(root table).
The stack frame is the portion of stack where the local variables declared in its body are
stored.
The environment object is an implicit parameter that is automatically passed by the
function caller (see see :ref:`functions <functions>`).
The root table is a table associated to the function during its creation.
The root table value of a function is the root table of the VM at the function creation.
The root table of function can also be changed after creation with closure.setroot().
During the execution, the body of a function can only transparently refer to his execution
context.
This mean that a single identifier can refer to a local variable, to an environment object slot
or to the slot of the closure root table;
The environment object can be explicitly accessed by the keyword ``this``.
The closure root table can be explicitly accessed through the operator ``::`` (see :ref:`Variables <variables>`).

.. _variables:

-----------------
Variables
-----------------

There are two types of variables in Squirrel, local variables and tables/arrays slots.
Because global variables(variables stored in the root of a closure) are stored in a table, they are table slots.

A single identifier refers to a local variable or a slot in the environment object.::

    derefexp := id;

::

    _table["foo"]
    _array[10]

with tables we can also use the '.' syntax::

    derefexp := exp '.' id

::

    _table.foo

Squirrel first checks if an identifier is a local variable (function arguments are local
variables) if not looks up the environment object (this) and finally looks up
to the closure root.

For instance:::

    function testy(arg)
    {
        local a=10;
        print(a);
        return arg;
    }

in this case 'foo' will be equivalent to 'this.foo' or this["foo"].

Global variables are stored in a table called the root table. Usually in the global scope the
environment object is the root table, but to explicitly access the closure root of the function from
another scope, the slot name must be prefixed with ``'::'`` (``::foo``).

For instance:::

    function testy(arg)
    {
        local a=10;
        return arg+::foo;
    }

accesses the variable 'foo' in the closure root table.

Since Squirrel 3.1 each function has a weak reference to a specific root table, this can differ from the current VM root table.::

    function test() {
        foo = 10;
    }

is equivalent to write::

    function test() {
        if("foo" in this) {
            this.foo = 10;
        }else {
            ::foo = 10;
        }
    }