A question of scoping (I think)

[Ryan Leigh <ryan@...>]

Hello everyone,

So I have a question. I just bet it has been answered somewhere, but I
don't have a succinct way to phrase it for a search. I'm creating a
scripting engine for a game and in this script I define an object
(which is of course really just a table) as well as some member values
a la:

myObj = {}
myObj.xPos = 10;
myObj.someVal = 100;

Now, I would like it if I could write a function:

function myObj.update()
   --some code
   someVal = xPos * 10
   --remaining code
end

The way I see it right now is I have to write the function like this:

function myObj.update()
   --some code
   myObj.someVal = myObj.xPos * 10
   --remaining code
end

Which is a pain and error prone (because I'm a lousy typist). So, to
finally get to the point, is there something I can do where when I
call a function that is in some object and I reference a variable, is
there someway I can force it to look in the object's table first
before going global? I guess this is similar to having a C++ class and
I want to scope to member variables in a member function. Or am I just
not envisioning all the possibilities of Lua and there exists a much
better way of doing things.

Whew, I hope that made sense.

Thanks for any help,
Ryan Leigh