How do I Generate Clones In Python?

Question

I am making a simplified version of Space Invaders and I am trying to make the bullets shot from the player's character. I have made a turtle for the character (main_ship) and a turtle for the bullet (bullet). How can I clone the bullet (for the purpose of shooting them)? This is my code for the bullet:

`bullet = turtle.Turtle()
bullet.speed(0)
bullet.shape("circle")
bullet.color("red")
bullet.shapesize(stretch_wid=0.5, stretch_len=0.5)
bullet.penup()
bullet.goto(main_ship.xcor(), main_ship.ycor())
bullet.hideturtle()`

I have not tried anything yet as I cannot find anything explaining how.

Answer 1

Since your bullets are turtles, have you looked at turtle's own clone() method:

Help on function clone in module turtle:

clone()

    No argument.

    Create and return a clone of the turtle with same position, heading
    and turtle properties.

    Example (for a Turtle instance named mick):
    mick = Turtle()
    joe = mick.clone()

Since turtles are effectively global entities, and never garbage collected, I recommend you not waste bullets but rather keep a pool (list) of available ones and that you pull from as needed and add back to when a bullet is no longer active. Only clone additional bullets, from a dedicated prototype, when the pool is empty.