Thread: Some help with "templates"

Hallo,

I am trying to build a generic debug class for printing information about different objects to the screen, and also change them if wanted, but I am having some problems with adding the ability to change them.

Here is my DebugItemClass.

The problem is in the update function, the code does not compile as c# does not like it when you try to assign other types of classes to the T object. Any ideas on what the correct way to do this is?

Code:

abstract class GenericDebugMenuItem
    {
        public abstract void Update(int value);
        public abstract void Draw(GameRender render, Vector2 position);
    }

    class DebugMenuItem<T> : GenericDebugMenuItem
    {
        T m_item;
        string m_text;
        float m_inputScale;
        DebugItemValueType m_type;

        bool m_selected;
        public bool Selected
        {
            get { return m_selected; }
            set { m_selected = value; }
        }

        public DebugMenuItem(ref T item, string text, float inputScale, DebugItemValueType type)
        {
            m_item = item;
            m_text = text;
            m_inputScale = inputScale;
            m_type = type;

            m_selected = false;
        }

        public override void Draw(GameRender render, Vector2 position)
        {
            string output = m_text + m_item.ToString();

            if (m_selected)
                render.AddTextToRender(output, position, Color.Yellow);
            else
                render.AddTextToRender(output, position, Color.Red);
        }

        public override void Update(int value)
        {
            switch (m_type)
            {
                case DebugItemValueType.E_double:
                    m_item = m_item + (value * m_inputScale);
                    break;
                case DebugItemValueType.E_bool:
                    if (value == -1)
                        m_item = false;
                    else if (value == 1)
                        m_item = true;
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

Edit:
I also have an other question, how can I store the pointer to the object that is passed it? Object are normally passed by value, but I want to store the pointer, so that if I change the value it gets updated where it was used.