Manual
Welcome to the Flexible Assistant Toolkit (FAST) user manual! This document is divided into seven sections covering each of the modules available in FAST. Each section includes a brief overview, descriptions of each structure or function and examples. The manual exposes the inner workings of every piece of FAST to help you get the most out of it, but users should find it very easy to use even if you only glance over the documentation!
- Core
- Database
- Input Handling
- Pointer
- Publisher
- Render
- Scripting
I like to call FAST "structure-oriented programming" as it makes heavy use of GMS2.3's structs. If you aren't familiar with them, you'll want to read up on how to use the new keyword in the manual. This keeps the library lightweight, avoids difficult dependencies and allows you to use all of its features the same as you would an object without all the overhead and management that comes with them. There are a few things that will make using FAST more intuitive.
First up, all functions use snake_case, the same as any built-in GML functions like array_explode() or string_to_real(). Structs on the other hand, all use PascalCase such as Gamepad(), Logger() or Array(). You can tell whether or not you'll need the new keyword just by looking at the name of the script.
Next, FAST is broken up into nine modules and each module is located in its own folder under the FAST folder in the Asset Browser. If a folder contains more than one type of resource, those resources will be placed into folder matching their use, Objects, Functions, Structs, etc...
Lastly, each folder is broken up into individual features. If a feature requires its own additional scripts, the parent will be in the base folder and the children in a sub-folder. Don't worry, you won't have to dig through a half dozen folders: FAST is meant to be lightweight, remember? It is meant to be well organized and make it easy to find what you are looking for. All this means is everything associated with a particular feature is nestled neatly into a single folder.