NamedResource is a mix-in module to implement a globally-available resource table, a @name variable and accessors, and a system for automatically loading resources when they are first needed.

This module is used for Rubygame::Music, Rubygame::Sound, and Rubygame::Surface. You can use it in your own classes this way:

1. Do ‘include Rubygame::NamedResource’ in your class definition.
2. Set MyClass.autoload_dirs to an Array of directories to look for files when autoloading. Tip: use File.join to create paths that work on any operating system.
3. Define autoload to implement the behavior for your class, or leave it as the default if you don‘t need autoloading. See the docs for autoload for more information.

Here‘s an example of how you could use this for a class which loads maps from a file:

    class Map
      include Rubygame::NamedResource

      Map.autoload_dirs = [ File.join("maps","world_1"),
                            File.join("maps","custom") ]

      def autoload( name )
        # Searches autoload_dirs for the file
        path = find_file( name )

        if( path )
          return load_map( path )
        else
          return nil
        end
      end

      def load_map( path )
        # Your code to do the real loading, then return
        # the created instance of Map class.
        # ...
        return map_instance
      end
    end

Here‘s an example of how you could then use the Map class:

    map = Map["level_1.map"]

    if( map )
      start_playing( map )
    else
      raise "Oops! The map file for Level 1 doesn't exist!"
    end