From shalott@liii.com
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 21:49:04 -0500
From: Naomi Novik <shalott@liii.com>
To: tf2005@liii.com
Subject: Coding Log

Seminar: Intro to coding

Cyclonus drops Lesson Plan.
Cyclonus says, "OK, all, seminar called to order :)"
Cyclonus points to Lesson Plan. Take a look, this is the outline of the
lesson. Some of the topics will be basic, but I'm going to try and explain
them very thoroughly.
Lesson plan for the seminar:
1) Coding a simple macro
2) All about objects: creating one and giving it attributes. 3) Flags
4) Making a puppet and controlling it
5) Common pitfalls
6) Next seminar :)
Cyclonus says, "OK. The first topic is coding a simple macro, or personal
command. These are really useful shortcuts for combinations of commands
that you use very frequently."
Cyclonus says, "Now, I'm going to type in a sample macro, and then take you
all through it step by step to explain each part."
Cyclonus &say_hello me=$sh:say {Hello there!}
Cyclonus says, "You can all try typing this on yourselves. :) Here's how it
works..."
Cyclonus says, "The &say_hello tells the MUSH that you are doing something
with an ATTRIBUTE named say_hello. An attribute is a part of the code on an
object that makes it unique, just like your physical attributes make you
unique."
Galvatron wonders how to activate the macro
Cyclonus says, "&say_hello me tells the MUSH that you are doing something
with an attribute called "say_hello" that is located on the object named
"me" (IE, on yourself)... I'll get to that in a moment, Galvy. :)"
Cyclonus says, "&say_hello me=<anything> tells the mush to SET the
attribute say_hello on you to <anything>. (btw, any words I type in all
caps are going to be important ones, so if you get confused aboyt their
meaning, don't be afraid to ask me."
Cyclonus says, "Does everyone understand the process of setting the
attribute on yourself? If you don't, say no; if you do, say yes. :)"
Cyclonus repeats the sample macro for the newcomers.
Cyclonus &say_hello me=$sh:say {Hello there!}
Slag says, "No."
Cyclonus says, "OK, Slag has a question..."
Cyclonus says, "Go ahead Slag. I'll answer yours afterwards if it isn't
cleared up by answering Slag's, Thunder & Ramjet."
Slag says, "Okay. So, by typing $say_hello, your are giving yourself an
attribute named, "say hello"?"
Cyclonus says, "Well, for one, it's &say_hello. It's important to use the
ampersand: the dollar sign means something else entirely to the MUSH."
Slag sorries..that's what I meant.
Airwolf says, "The "me" is important too. You could be setting this
attribute on something other than yourself, like an object."
Cyclonus says, "For the second, just typing &say_hello me=
will NOT set an attribute on you, because there's nothing to set on you
there. :) You have to use &say_hello me=<something>"
Thunderbolt uhhhhhs.
Cyclonus says, "Important exception: If there already IS an attribute
called SAY_HELLO on you, typing
&say_hello me=
will SET it to _empty_."
Cyclonus says, "In other words, erase it."
Thunderbolt says, "Is it my turn to question, the Prof.?"
Slag ahhhhh's. Okay.
Cyclonus says, "However... typing
&say_hello me=blah
will create an attribute on you named say_hello that contains the word
"blah". Try that, if you like. :)"
Cyclonus says, "OK, Slag, does that answer your question?"
Thunderbolt says, "I'm confused on this attribute part."
Slag nods
Cyclonus nods, OK, Thunderbolt, what's your question? :)
Thunderbolt says, "Say, your object, say the NoNod, is the '&say_hello
<object>=whatever, would the code say whatever?"
Thunderbolt sorries on the lag, his bad typing and his overall bad day.
Cyclonus says, "I'm not sure I understand your question. Does this answer
it? Typing
&say_hello NoNod=whatever
would create an attribute called say_hello on the NoNod object that
contained the word whatever."
Thunderbolt says, "Well, I bet this is next, but what attributes are for what?"
Cyclonus says, "Important point: an attribute can be named nearly anything
and contain nearly anything. You could do &afgkjhgaiuh
me=aghaiht25826fanilgh7825tohag

An attribute by itself doesn't _do_ anything. It's what is contained in an
attribute (ie, what's after the equal sign ) that actually has an effect."
Thunderbolt says, "So what would your example do?"
Cyclonus nods to Thunderbolt, that's next. :) I want to make sure
everyone's clear on this before I continue.
Cyclonus says, "Does everyone get the principle of setting an attribute? :)"
Thunderbolt shurgs, but "Go ahead.
Slag nods
Arcee does. :)
Cyclonus repeats the sample macro again: &say_hello me=$sh:say {Hello there!}
Cyclonus says, "OK. Now let's move on to the content of this macro. The
first thing inside this macro is a $. The $, when it's the first letter of
an attribute, has a very important function: It tells the mush that this
attribute contains a command."
Cyclonus says, "The commands created this way are called $-TRIGGERS,
because they start with a $ and TRIGGER some sort of event."
Cyclonus says, "I've now put the sample macron on the lesson plan so you
can all look at it while I babble, btw. :)"
Cyclonus says, "You can use nearly any word or phrase you want to use as
the actual trigger word. The trigger word is what you will type to activate
the command, so it usually makes sense to make it as short and
easy-to-remember as you can."
Cyclonus says, "The trigger word follows the $ and is ended with a colon
(:). Because of that, you can't use colons inside trigger words (I made
that mistake once and spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong ;)"
Cyclonus says, "Slag, you have a question?"
Slag nods, "Can you set macos to already existing attributes?"
Cyclonus says, "Are you asking if you can erase an attribute that already
exists and replace it with one that has a macro?"
Saber has arrived.
Slag says, "Sort of...maybe i'm just impatient, but how would you set the
TRIGGER to execute an attack or something? Woulnd't that go off of an
already existing attribute?"
Cyclonus says, "You're getting ahead of the program in that case. :) I'll
get to that in time."
Saber says, "Hello there!"
Galvatron says, "Surrender or be obliterated!! HUAHAHAH!!"
Saber laughs
Galvatron says, "what the??"
Cyclonus says, "Saber, please don't spam or test the macro just yet. :)"
Slag sorries..then eats Galvatron
Cyclonus says, "Please, no spam."
Galvatron says, "uhhh, how did that go off?"
Saber says, "OK."
Galvatron didn't do it
Cyclonus will explain that too, Galvy :)
Saber didn't.
Galvatron looks suspiciously at cyc, then goes quiet
Cyclonus says, "OK, does everyone understand how you choose and create the
trigger word?"
Cyclonus says, "OK. Now, everything that follows the colon is a COMMAND
LIST. A command list is a list of commands that are already defined. In
this case, the command list is just:
say {Hello there!}"
Mirage puts his hand up.
Adamia has arrived.
Cyclonus says, "All of you are familiar with the say command (or the "
command, which does the same thing). This is a command that is already
defined inside the MUSH, and it has an effect: it makes the object that
enters that command say whatever is after it."
Cyclonus says, "Mirage, you have a question?"
Adamia wavers hi then immediately quiets.
Mirage says, "Yeah. Where exactly do we put the colon? After the $ sign?"
Mirage never minds as he looks at the lesson plan.
Cyclonus LAGS!
Cyclonus says, "The colon follows the end of the $-TRIGGER"
Mirage nods
Cyclonus nods.
Cyclonus says, "OK...now, whenever someone types the $-TRIGGER of a macro,
the COMMAND LIST of that macro gets executed."
Cyclonus says, "And that's how it works, on the most basic level. Does
everyone understand so far?"
Cyclonus says, "OK. Now, to make this sample macro a little more
complicated." Cyclonus says, "Actually, before I do that, let me also warn
you about a couple of pitfalls involved in any macro."
Cyclonus demonstrates one.
Saber says, "Hello there!"
Mirage grin
Cyclonus says, "I just typed "sh". :)"
Saber says, "Hello there!"
Saber says, "Hello there!"
Saber says, "Hello there!"
Galvatron LOL
Cyclonus says, "And triggered SABER's macro... please stop now all :)"
Saber says, "You can stop now."
Thunderbolt says, "BRB"
Cyclonus says, "Back in the bad old days, you had to do nasty annoying
things to get around this little problem. Now, however, there is one simple
thing that you can do to avoid this problem all the time."
Thunderbolt has disconnected.
Cyclonus says, "You need to USELOCK yourself. Just like @lock me=me, which
locks you so no one can pick you up, @lock/use me=me will lock you so no
one else can USE you or your macros."
Saber knew he forgot to do something when this character was created.
Cyclonus says, "OK, that's problem one... the second common problem is a
FLAG called NO_COMMAND. This flag is a default flag: it's automatically set
on every object and character that is created on the MUSH."
Cyclonus says, "Anything that has this flag on it, the MUSH takes one look
at, says "Oh, this has NO COMMANDS on it, so I can ignore it" and none of
the commands on the object will work."
Cyclonus says, "To check and see if you have this flag set on you, type
"brief me" and look at the line right under your name, after the word
"Flags:"" Cyclonus says, "If you do, just type
@set me=!NO_COMMAND
to reset the flag."
Cyclonus says, "Then any commands you put on yourself will work. Does
everyone understand so far?"
Cyclonus says, "OK, great :) Now, everyone take another look at the macro
on the lesson plan, as we're now going to make it a little more
complicated." Cyclonus says, "As I mentioned above, everything after the
colon is the COMMAND LIST. You can have a whole slew of commands in the
command list. The way you separate the commands is with semicolons (;)."
Cyclonus says, "Now, you'll notice that in the current macro, there's an
odd difference between the first command and hte second command. In the
first command, the message is enclosed in {}. In the second, the message
isn't."
Quiet Coding Room
Please follow the rules of the room: 1) No spamming 2) No leaving spammy
objects in here. They will be immediately @nuked, no questions asked. Type
'spamdef' for a definition (NOT an example, don't worry) of spammy.3) Ask
others in the room before testing any spammy objects. Contents:
Whiz
IF YOU COME IN LATE, READ
Adamia
Saber
Arcee
Airwolf
Lesson Plan
Ramjet
Mirage
Slag
Thunderbolt
Bel Arin
Cyclonus
Obvious exits:
<FC> leads to Free Code Room.
Lesson plan for the seminar:
1) Coding a simple macro
2) All about objects: creating one and giving it attributes. 3) Flags
4) Making a puppet and controlling it
5) Common pitfalls
6) Next seminar :)

&say_hello me=$sh:say {Hello there!};pose waves.
Cyclonus says, "That's because a) I forgot to put the {} in the second time
;) and b) the {} aren't _really_ necessary in this particular case. Using
{} is just a VERY good habit to get into, because very often they ARE
necessary, and if you aren't used to using them, you can spend a long time
trying to figure out what is wrong with a command."
Cyclonus now fixes the macro on the lesson plan to be right :)
Whiz has reconnected.
Adamia okays so i'd do the ; pose waves then? Cyclonus says, "Slag, your
question?"
Whiz has partially disconnected.
Slag says, "So, exactly what do I have to put around then?"
Slag says, "er.."""
Cyclonus hehs. Type a \ before the first { to make it show up :) Slag
aaaaah's...{}
Slag says, "those"
Saber says, "/"
Cyclonus says, "Like I said, it's complicated. You're safe if you put {}
around everything, basically."
Saber says, "{}"
Slag says, "Around just stuff you want to say, or everything, including
commands..?"
Cyclonus says, "You can put it around everything, although messages are one
of the most common things that have problems unless you put }"
Cyclonus says, "oops. {} around them."

**This is actually wrong *:) If you put {} around the commands in this
**example, it won't work! *ouch*. Sorry. :> -Cyc

Slag okays
Hoist has arrived.
Hoist comes into the room, looking for those who haven't been checked up on
lately.
Cyclonus says, "OK, is everyone clear on this?"

Cyclonus says, "OK! Now, let's take the next step. :)"
Cyclonus says, "The next step is making this macro personal. After all, if
you say the same thing and wave every time someone comes in, it's sort of
like one of those annoying form letters. :) To make it personal, we need to
add a VARIABLE."
Cyclonus says, "A VARIABLE is just something that changes every time the
command is executed. The MUSH has a few different ways of allowing you to
put in variables, but we're going to concentrate on the most basic and also
most useful kind."
Cyclonus says, "Here is our rewritten macro: &say_hello me=$sh *:say {Hello
there, %0!};pose {waves.} "
Cyclonus says, "Two parts go into making a variable. First part: You have
to add a WILDCARD to the $-TRIGGER. A wildcard is just like a wildcard in
any card game: it can be anything. A wildcard is represented in a $-TRIGGER
by the asterisk (*) symbol."
Cyclonus says, "What that means is that this command can now be triggered
by typing
sh <ANYTHING>
For example: sh snorfblat globble
would trigger the command ;)"
Cyclonus says, "Second part: we have to make whatever was in the wildcard
show up in the command. Here's where it gets a little complicated."
Cyclonus says, "The MUSH has several storage spaces called REGISTERS. These
REGISTERS store information for the length of a command. There are a total
of ten registers, which can hold just about anything. They are numbered
0-9. Whenever you have a wildcard in a command, the stuff that replaces the
wildcard in what you actually type gets stuffed into one of the registers.
(don't ask questions about this part yet, wait til I finish explaining)."
Cyclonus says, "The stuff that replaces the first wildcard gets put into
the 0 register. The stuff that replaces the second wildcard gets put into
the 1 register, and so on up until 9. You can't have more wildcards than 10
in a command for that reason :)."
Cyclonus continues... "In our nice macro, there is only one wildcard, so
everything that replaces it in the actually typed command will get put into
the 0 register. So, when you type
sh snorfblat globble
the 0 register will contain: snorfblat globble"
Cyclonus says, "OK. Slag, you had a question? I'll take them on this part,
but don't ask why I'm explaining it, it'll become clear in a moment :)"
Slag okays, "I was wondering, do you need more than one wildcard if you
have more than one variable?
Mirage actually thiks this is making some stuff clearer than it was before
:) Cyclonus says, "Yes, Slag, you do. :)"
Slag says, "So how do you type that?"
Cyclonus says, "Note: you don't need more than one wildcard for one WORD.
But you do need more than one wildcard if you want to have more than one
variable... well, that again gets more complicated, so let me finish
explaining this part first. :)"
Slag okays
Cyclonus says, "Does everyone understand this so far? :)"
Cyclonus says, "OK. The next step is, we want to get the information OUT of
the register and INTO the command."
Cyclonus says, "And to do that, we use the handy-dandy % symbol."
Cyclonus says, "Example: when you include %0 in a command, it is replaced
by whatever is in the 0 register."
Cyclonus says, "So, when you type
sh snorfblat globble
The result will be:
Cyclonus says, "Hello there, snorfblat globble!"
Cyclonus waves."
Adamia ahhhhs.
Cyclonus says, "Everyone understand so far? :)"
Slag wonders what's in the other registers
Airwolf says, "Yes."
Whiz cools
Cyclonus says, "Slag, to answer your question:"
Whiz puts her hand up. She has a question when you're done with Slag but
may be jumping the gun.
Cyclonus says, "In this particular case, the other registers are EMPTY.
There's nothing in them, because there was only one wildcard in the
command. If you made a mistake and had this command on you: &say_hello
me=$sh *:{say Hello there, %1!} When you typed
sh snorfblat
The result would be
Cyclonus says, "Hello there, !"
Cyclonus waves.
which would look sort of silly. :)"
Slag OOOOOH's as the really big, Mack truck of ideas hits him
Cyclonus says, "OK, now, Adamia, you had a question?"
Saber wonders why no one's tried it yet.
Whiz dunnos about Adamia, but she has one.
Adamia wonders if the register 0 would change each time if you wanted to
use the macro on 3 seperate persons
Cyclonus says, "To avoid spam, Saber. :) We can test afterwards, when the
log is done."
Cyclonus nods, exactly.
Saber says, "OK."
Adamia okays then
Slag says, "then you could have 9 variables in one macro?"
Cyclonus says, "If you typed 'sh Adamia', it would put in Adamia for the
%0. If you typed sh Slag after that, it would put Slag in for the %0. :)
The registers are cleared out after every command is finished, so there
won't be anything left in them."
Cyclonus says, "Whiz was next..."
Slag oh's
Cyclonus says, "Briefly, Slag, yes, you can have up to 10 variables in one
macro."
Whiz says, "What if two people run a macro at once? And along those lines,
why does one person's macro trigger another person's if they both have the
same name?"
Whiz says, "For example, I have kicked people on accident when my kick
macro was triggered."
Air Raid has arrived.
Saber raises his hand.
Cyclonus says, "OK, let me answer the second question first. It doesn't
matter if the macros have the same attribute name: it only matters if their
macros have the same $-TRIGGER. And in this case, Whiz, you weren't
uselocked, which we discussed earler."
Whiz says, "Oh, ok."
Saber puts his hand down.
Cyclonus says, "As for why, that's how the MUSH works. :) When you type in
something, the MUSH starts looking around for a command to match it with.
It looks at all the commands that are part of the MUSH code, then it looks
around on you and your objects, then it looks at the objects in the same
room as you, then it looks at the global objects. This can become very
technical, so I wont' go into it further."
Whiz doesn't need to get technical, that's quite ok with me :)
Cyclonus says, "Now, to answer your second question, that doesn't cause a
problem. THe MUSH is smart enough to keep track of the registers for the
separate people."
Cyclonus says, "Adamia, the syntax is: @lock/use me=me"
Cyclonus says, "Airwolf, you're next. :)"
Adamia d'ohs.
Airwolf nods. "Back to multiple variables. Let's say I wanted to say hello
to the people in the room. How would I code the macro so I didn't have to
repeat it x times?
Airwolf says, "Wait, that's not a good example."
Cyclonus says, "OK. Well, in this example, you don't really need multiple
variables. You could just type:
sh Slag, Adamia, Airwolf
and it would say, "Hello there, Slag, Adamia, Airwolf!" and wave."
Airwolf says, "Just two variables, with different uses in the $trigger."
Cyclonus says, "I want to make sure I have answered all the questions on
this before we get into multiple variables, actually... just one second.
:)" Cyclonus says, "Saber, do you still ahve a question?"
Airwolf nods.
Saber says, "No."
Cyclonus says, "Slag, then :)"
Slag says, "Okay, how would you type multiple wildcars, just "****" or
something? Slag confused."
Cyclonus says, "OK, before I go into this, is everyone ok with the current
macro? Do you all understand how it works?"
Cyclonus says, "OK. Then onward to multiple variables. :)"
Adamia thinks so.
Slag cheers
Saber nods.
Cyclonus says, "OK. Let's say that you now want to give the newcomer an
idea of how you're feeling. You might want to pose "waves happily" or
"waves glumly"."
Cyclonus says, "Since you don't always feel the same way, you want this to
be another variable. Take a look at the lesson plan now to see how I've set
this up."
Cyclonus says, "You'll notice that there's now a second wildcard in the
message, separated from the first one by an equals sign (=)."
Cyclonus says, "The $-TRIGGER is now sh *=*, which will be matched by
typing sh <anything>=<anything>"
Arcee says, "Kinda like a Mad Lib :)"
Cyclonus says, "Does it have to be an equals sign? No. Not at all. You
could have the $-COMMAND be sh * * or sh *-* or sh */* if you liked."
Cyclonus nods to Arcee. "The reason I like to use = in the $-Trigger is
because it's not normally used in a phrase. For instance, you don't want to
use sh * * because the first wildcard will STOP as soon as it hits the
first space.
Cyclonus says, "So if you tried to type
sh Arcee and Slag happily
while having sh * * as the $-TRIGGER, it would result in: Cyclonus says,
"Hello there, Arcee!"
Cyclonus waves and Slag happily."
Cyclonus says, "Which looks silly :)"
Whiz snickers
Adamia raises hand
Slag aha's
Cyclonus says, "Adamia?"
Adamia says, "hmmm... just wondered something..."
Adamia says, "do you do a *=*=* and so on for each of the variables/registers?"
Cyclonus says, "Yep, exactly :)"
Cyclonus says, "Anyway, this has run overtime, so I don't think we're going
to get to the rest of the lesson plan *:>"
Slag darns
Cyclonus says, "Does everyone understand this much? :)"
Whiz figured :)
Airwolf says, "Yes."
Cyclonus has to go eat dinner :)
Slag nods and hugs Cyclonus
Doc nods
Whiz says, "Thanks so much, Cyc!"
Airwolf waves.
Cyclonus says, "Next seminar announcement: )"
Cyclonus says, "The next one will be on more complex commands, using
@select/@switch and @dolist, with an introduction to functions."

...out flew the web and floated wide
the mirror crack'd from side to side...
-the lady of shalott-

email: shalott@deshaw.com
http://www.liii.com/~tf2005