From - Sun Sep 27 08:34:07 1998
From: Ragnar Fyri <ragnar.fyri@daf.no>
To: Fuzzy Logic Mailing List <fuzzylogic@mudservices.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 22:17:10 +0100
Subject: Stick shift

What has driving a car got to do with mucking? Well, most people today drive
cars with automatic transmissions, but sometimes they may have to drive a
manual and some times it may even work better. (The automatic does not always
aggree with the driver which gear is the best) Same way, most modern muckers
(?) do most if not all their editing with EditPlayer, Editroom and EditAction
(which seems to have a different name here? EA I mean...) but most if not all
of the things these programs do can be done "manually" too. And where the
Edit programs only work on the player and the room s/he's in, the "manual"
commands can be used from anywhere. (Well most of them. @chown requires
mortals to be in a room or hold an object) And they are easier to use when
you only have to do one thing or a few things too. Le's say someone wants to
take over one of your rooms and there are no wizards around. When he pages
you you have two options:
1) Go there, start EditRoom, choose option 8, exit the program and go back
to whatever you were doing.
2) Type @set #<number>=C and get back to whatever you were doing. (Assuming
you know or have already looked up the number of course).
I have even used 'change' to make small modifications in lists. When you
only need to make one small change and know which line it's in it is easier
to type e.g. 'change me=redesc#/5:/dog/cat' than to start lsedit,load the
whole list, enter '.repl 5=/dog/cat' and exit and save the list...

Well I said most if not all the things the editors can do, can be done
manually, so I thought I'd go through the menus and prove it... EditRoom
first. (erased the heading accidentally, but you've seen it so...)
["ROOM" can be either "here" if you are in the room or the number if you're
not.]

1. NAME:

@name ROOM=Name

2. DESC:

@desc ROOM=Description here.
 OR
@desc ROOM={list:redesc} and
lsedit ROOM=redesc
Description here.
.end

(Depending on whether you choose MPI list format or not)
 
3. Room is NOT dark.

@set ROOM=D (or !D to cancel)

4. Throwing is NOT allowed.

@set ROOM=_throw_ok?:yes (or no, or delete the prop)

5. Linking is NOT allowed.

@set ROOM=L (or !L to cancel)

6. Pets are allowed.

Uh, I think you have to set a prop to ban them and since I set everything
in my test room allowed...

7. Exits are automatically listed.

@succ ROOM=@260 (number varies on other mucks)
                (because it's a program reference of course...)

8. Room can NOT change ownership.

I just told you, right?
@set ROOM=C (or... you get it)

9. Room's parent room is Room Zero(#0).

Uhm... Okay, I don't know that one! :P

10. This room is publically sweepable.

@set ROOM=_public?:yes

11. Others can NOT set this room as their homes.

@set ROOM=A

12. Edit this room's exits.

See below...

13. Create a new room.

@dig RoomName (and make a note of the number)

=============================================================================

Action Hammer V1.0 (C) 1994 by Triggur
--------------------------------------

1. NAMES : 

@name ACTION=name;othername;thirdname (etc.)
Actions can have more than one name, if you want to use short forms you must
specify each variant. I usually call exits things like east;eas;ea;e for
example.
(Some programs will do different things depending on what name they are
called by)

2. DESC: 

Same as with rooms only use the action name or number. (Yes you can use MPI
lists but only manually)

3. Action is NOT invisible.

@set ACTION=D again

4. Broadcasting is NOT enabled.

@set ACTION=_broadcast?:yes

5. Exit is NOT locked.

@lock ACTION=locking conditions. ('me' if you don't want anyone else to pass
for instance)
@unlock ACTION to cancel!

6. When used, user sees nothing.

@succ ACTION=What user sees when using the action. (e.g. You walk through the
door") Seet to null string (@set ACTION=) to cancel.


7. When used, others see nothing.

@osucc ACTION=what they see. (e.g. "walks through the door." - the user's
name is automatically inserted at the start!) Cancel as above.

8. When locked, user sees nothing.

@fail=The door is locked! (for instance) (like succ)

9. When locked, others see nothing.

@ofail ACTION=runs straight into the door! (as above)

10. When done, others see nothing.

@odrop ACTION=comes out through the door from the post office.

11. Action is linked to 

@link ACTION=@number or $mnemonic (like $nothing for actions that only
show text)
@unlink ACTION cancels. (Note: Some mucks have a @relink command that will
both unlink and link an action. This may be a better idea to get here than
some of the other weird stuff that's been suggested!) <g>

12. Delete this action.

@recycle ACTION
Talking of that, someone asked me once how to move an action and I said the
only way I knew was to create a new action, copy all the data from the old
one and recycle the old one. I just looked through some help files, and...
Heh. Ever checked the docs for @attach,anyone? ;P

=============================================================================

Player Hammer V1.4 (C) 1994-1998 by Triggur
-------------------------------------------

Your name is 

@name me=Name password
(btw this is not a numbered option so you can't change your name with
EditPlayer, you must do it manually)

2. Your description is:

As for rooms and actions, but use 'me' as first parameter. (It may be
possible to refer to yourself by name or db number in these orders, but
why bother when you have to be there anyway? <g>)

3. Your sex is 

@set me=sex:male
@set me=gender:male (or female or neuter. This can be anything you like but
only the official genders give proper pronoun substitution. Howver there is
a way around that as well. Will return to that some other time)

4. Your species is 

@set me=Species:whatever

5. You can throw items.

@set me=_throw_ok?:yes (or no or erase)

6. Your home is 

@link me=here (or ROOM? Anyone ever tried linking themselves to somewhere
they're not?)

7. You can hand/be handed items.

@set me=_hand/hand_ok:yes (no or erase to cancel) 

8. You can NOT fly.

@set me=_flight?:yes

9. Your smell message is

@set me=_scent:What you smell.

10. When you speak you see 

@set me=_say/def/say:verb ('You' is added automatically)

11. When you speak others see

@set me=_say/def/osay:verbs (Your name too...)
 
12. Edit sweep messages.

Uhm again... Well they can be @set too (they're props after all) but my
character doesn't have any and I don't remember the exact names used
elsewhere either. Look in the sweep or _sweep directory...

=============================================================================

Anyway one advantage with using direct commands is that you can spend less
time online by doing all the typing and editing before you connect and store
the data in a file you can then just drop on the muck and get processed in
far less time than it would take to sit and type it online. (Most of the
Domain area was created in this way!) You may already have used a text editor
or word processor to write your desc, then gone online and typed in
lsedit me=redesc before transferring the file and typing .end, but has it
occured to you that you could enter those commands in the file too? In fact
that makes it even more advanced - if you wanted to create a room with four
objects for instance, you would have to make a separate file for each object,
but by inserting commands you can create and edit several objects by sending
just one file. Here's an example. Let's say you just created a room and
teleported into it. (You need the room number for that so it's a bit tricky
to do *everything* with batchfiles). Once you're there you just send this
file to the muck to make things happen.

@name here=Special Test Room
@act west;wes;we;w=here
@link w=here
@desc w=This door leads west back here because this is just an example.
@succ w=You walk west and end up where you started.
@osucc w=walks west and comes right back!
@odrop w=is still here!

@act south;sout;sou;so;s=here
@link s=here
@desc s=This door leads south back here because this is just an example.
@succ s=You walk south and end up where you started.
@osucc s=walks south and comes right back!
@odrop s=is still here!

@act east;eas;ea;e=here
@link e=here
@desc e=This door leads east back here because this is just an example.
@succ e=You walk east and end up where you started.
@osucc e=walks east and comes right back!
@odrop e=is still here!

@act north;nort;nor;no;n=here
@link n=here
@desc n=This door leads north back here because this is just an example.
@succ n=You walk north and end up where you started.
@osucc n=walks north and comes right back!
@odrop n=is still here!

@succ here=@260

@desc here={list:redesc}
lsedit here=redesc
This is an experimental room. It only exists for and by itself
because all the doors here only lead back to this room!
You may make it a bit more useful by replacing "here" in the 
@link lines with actual numbers of your other rooms. Now why
didn't you think of that before you executed the file!!
.end
look
look n
look e
look s
look w
n
e
s
w

(end of file)
At the end you have not just created this room but tested it and the exits
as well!
Or try this one (assuming your character is male, if not just switch around
the pronouns etc.) (also assuming your desc is in a MPI list)

morph #add
male
?
?
@set me=sex:female
@set me=gender:female
lsedit me=redesc
.repl 1 $=/he/she
.repl 1 $=/He/She
.repl 1 $=/him/her
.repl 1 $=/his/her
.repl 1 $=/His/Her
.repl 1 $=/male/female
.end
morph #add
female
?
?
morph male
ws
look me
morph female
ws
look me 

Congratulations, you are now a "crossmorpher" <g>. Uhm, assuming you replaced
the questionmarks with spaces! (to answer two of the morph program's
questions with the default values.)

-- 
We'll be right back after these messages.



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