I've run into a design problem in my java code. My application uses missiles, and there are different types of missiles that all work identical except they have 3 unique attributes. The constructor of a missile must know these attributes. I decided to make missile an abstract class, but I can't assign values to protected variables in a subclass outside of a method/constructor. Also I can't declare the variables in the constructor, because I must make the call to the super-constructor first thing. How can I be smart about this problem?
public abstract class Missile {
private int x, y;
private Image image;
boolean visible;
private final int BOARD_WIDTH = 390;
protected final int MISSILE_SPEED;
protected final int MISSILE_HEIGHT;
protected String file;
public Missile(int x, int y) {
ImageIcon ii =
new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource(file));
image = ii.getImage();
visible = true;
this.x = x;
this.y = y - Math.floor(MISSILE_HEIGHT/2);
}
public Image getImage() {
return image;
}
public int getX() {
return x;
}
public int getY() {
return y;
}
public boolean isVisible() {
return visible;
}
public void move() {
x += MISSILE_SPEED;
if (x > BOARD_WIDTH)
visible = false;
}
}
And there is an ideal implementation of a subclass, except it doesn't work. (it can't recognize the protected variables). What do I do?
public class Laser extends Missile {
MISSILE_SPEED = 2;
MISSILE_HEIGHT = 5;
file = "laser.jpg";
public Laser(int x, int y) {
super(x, y);
}
}
Change the base class fields and constructors to
protected final int speed;
protected final int height;
public Missile(int x, int y, int speed, int height, String file) {
ImageIcon ii =
new ImageIcon(this.getClass().getResource(file));
image = ii.getImage();
visible = true;
this.speed = speed;
this.height = height;
this.x = x;
this.y = y - Math.floor(height/2);
}
And the subclass to:
public class Laser extends Missile {
public Laser(int x, int y) {
super(x, y, 2, 5, "laser.jpg");
}
...
}
The attributes are already in the base class, so they must not be redefined in the subclass. All-uppercase naming is reserved to constants in Java.