Can anybody explain why shortcuts doesn't work?

[Kasperelo]

I had an idea that I could write

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function quad(x,y,w,h,sw,sh)
love.graphics.newQuad(x,y,w,h,sw,sh)
end

insted of writing

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love.graphics.newQuad()

every single time, so I could instead write quad(), not love.graphics.newQuad(). But it doesn't work. Why?

[ferdielance]

That function doesn't return anything. So if you say:

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myQuad = quad(etc etc etc)

...after defining that function, it evaluates quad to nil.

Fortunately, .lua lets us treat functions like any other kind of data, so you don't need to go through so many hoops to make a convenient alias! Try this:

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quad = love.graphics.newQuad
myQuad = quad(etc etc etc etc)

Notice that you don't put parentheses in that first line, since you're referring to the function itself as data, not calling it.

EDIT: Of course, this kind of aliasing is reallllly handy for making markup-language style stuff:

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disp = table.moreTable.wowLotsOfTablesHere.myRidiculouslyLongwindedTextDisplayFunction
disp"Wow, that was terse."

[kikito]

In other words, you are missing a return:

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function quad(x,y,w,h,sw,sh)
  return love.graphics.newQuad(x,y,w,h,sw,sh)
end

But it would work just the same if you defined quad like this:

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quad = love.graphics.newQuad

[Kasperelo]

Aaah. Okay. Thank you!