AL_ID(3)

📦 version 4.4.3.1, in fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 AL_ID 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the Allegro manual ✨ we're doing a deep dive on AL_ID today and honestly? it's giving tiny macro, huge power 💅

✨ NAME ✨

AL_ID — converts four 8 bit values into a packed 32 bit integer ID 🎀 part of the Allegro game programming library, obviously.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro.h>

Macro AL_ID(a,b,c,d)

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like. this macro takes four lil 8 bit characters and squishes them into one packed 32 bit integer. and the way it does that on both 32 and 64 bit machines?? no cap, it just works everywhere 🫶

and what do you even do with a packed ID like that? bestie, so many things 😌 like:

  • custom datafile objects
  • system IDs
  • literally any vibe where you need four letters pretending to be a number

here's the iconic little example from the page, verbatim, don't @ me:

#define OSTYPE_LINUX       AL_ID('T','U','X',' ')

see how 'T', 'U', 'X', and ' ' walk in as four separate 8 bit values and leave as one whole integer?? that's the whole assignment. main character energy fr fr 👑

quick reminder bestie: it's a macro, not a function — so it's AL_ID(a,b,c,d), all four args, every time 💀 no skipping, no shortcuts.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • DAT_ID(3) — the sibling macro, go say hi 💜

okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓✨ and for the credits moment: this was the Allegro manual, version 4.4.3 🎀 thanks for reading, mwah, bye bestie 💖💅🧚

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