more get_node() sugar, please!

[BaddRadish]

currently $child is sugar for get_node("child"). great. love it.
i think we should consider expanding this...

(1) GENERAL NODE ACCESS
sometimes we need to access the child of a node that is stored in a variable, instead of the current script's context.
so instead of get_node("child"), sometimes we need my_var.get_node("child").
currently there's no sugar for this.
but we should add some:
my_var.$child.attribute

• it feels consistent with both $ behavior and . behavior.
• its simple.
• the highlighter already correctly highlights this syntax.

(2) PARENT NODE ACCESS
to access the parent or siblings right now we need quotes: $"../sibling".
as far as i can tell this is the only time you need to put quotes around the path.
i cant imagine it would be too hard to make $../sibling work.
i suppose the problem would be .attribute.
anyway some kind of sugar for .get_parent() would be nice.
$".." just feels wrong.

• as far as i can tell this is the only time you need to put quotes around the path, so needing quotes here is inconsistent with all other uses of get_node().
• i cant imagine it would be too hard to make $../sibling work.

i suppose the problem would be .attribute.
anyway some kind of sugar for .get_parent() would be nice.

(3) $ FOR NON LITERAL STRINGS
suppose i wanted to dynamically generate a path. i could do that with get_node("path"+my_str).
but if i want to use $ i can only use literals.
how about $("path"+my_str)?

• kind of like how we have to add quotes back in for the special case of $"..", in this special case we also have to add the parens back in.
• it still works the same as get_node(), so its not complicating the $ to get_node() relationship at all.

i'm not too worried about this one, just an idea.

thanks for your time and input!

[Calinou]

Have you seen scene-unique nodes (%Something in 4.0, or get_node("%Something") in 3.5)? This allows you to access nodes within a scene regardless of their actual path by passing only their name after the % symbol. You can create those by right-clicking a node in the Scene tree dock and choosing Access As Scene Unique Node.

[BaddRadish]

yes i have seen this. thank you!

[Mickeon]

See #1776 (comment).

Also see #5064 and #5064 for more... possibly savoury, sugary related Proposals.

[BaddRadish]

added my two cents to those