Advanced Guid properties

The usual task in the development process is making sure an entity has a proper identifier. Someone is using int numerals, others use string names, risking running into a conflict with duplicates.

The best solution - GUID, a globally unique identifier. The total number of unique such GUIDs is 2¹²²(approximately 5.3×10³⁶). This number is so large that the probability of the same number being generated randomly twice is negligible. Using Guids in unity3d editor is somewhat uncomfortable: unity3d can not serialize them. We have to use a string representation instead of an actual GUID. Then we need to convert it back to the GUID.

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There are several approaches to this. Firstly, you can use properties with initialization in Awake()

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Secondly, some form of lazy initialization may be adopted.

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However, it is prone to string format errors.

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Another problem arises. When you look at the string representation like {353fe684-d854-4332-a778-336714d8eedf} you may be unable to immediately identify an entity being referenced, is it a ship, a lifeless planet, or an armor-piercing bullets. (Well, I developed an ability to identify some annoying objects after a while)


Finally I implemented an extension to address these issues.


The main point is a wrapper class AGuid. It wraps the native Guid struct and has the following features:

• it is comparable to the native Guid

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• typecast to the Guid and vice versa.
  
  
• it is serialized by Unity engine
  
  
• can be displayed and edited in the Inspector

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• “Edit” window does not allow to input data of an incorrect format.

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You can also give human-friendly names to identifiers that will be displayed instead of the string representation. These names are saved in the project as a file. It goes to a source control system, if you are using one, so the whole team can use the same set of the human-friendly aliases.

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Is anyone interested in such an extension?
Shall I polish it and publish it to the store?