More Roodylib updates

First off, you may have noticed that I've been using pastebin lately for larger pieces of code.  I'm in the process of looking at gist (github's source code sharing thingy) and may switch over to that soon (it seems it does a better job of preserving tabs, although you can still keep pastebin's tabs if you click through to the raw format).  Ideally, eventually I'll have some kind of syntax highlighting on here, too.

Anyhow, let's talk about the things I've added to Roodylib!

New DoOpen Behavior

While taking a look at another look at Cryptozookeeper, that mailbox in the first room reminded me how much I don't like Hugo's default opening behavior.  Funny how my perfect example goes so far back, but I've always liked Zork's "Opening the <blank> reveals a..." text.

So I added this code to do it:

See, it even properly sets the pronoun now

Initially, I wanted the contents to be listed even if there was an object.after, so you could have something like:

"The mailbox squeaks open.

Inside the mailbox is..."

But since the original Hugo library didn't do that, I don't want to break all of the existing games out there more than I have to (of course, you can put the content-listing code in your object.after property routine, which is what those old games already do... it's just uglier).

As of right now, I'm thinking this will be a default behavior, but if people hate it, I'll put in some way to turn it off.

Anchorhead-style Auto-Examination of Picked Up Items

The other day, I was looking at the tips section of Hugo By Example, and I was reminded of this neat little thing that Anchorhead does that I wouldn't mind seeing in more games.  In the game, for certain items, if you hadn't examined them before picking them up, picking them up automatically examines them.  I think it's a cute time-saving device, and I figured there's no reason it can't be thrown into Roodylib for convenience.  To use it, all you have to do is set the AUTOMATIC_EXAMINE flag.

Here is the code that makes it work:

Actually, more Zork-style stuff

I also haven't liked how it's always on the author's shoulders to specify whether a container is open. Even though, in this day and age, all objects should have a long_desc anyway, I've updated DoLook so that if an object doesn't have one, openable containers automatically tell you if they are open or closed.

mailbox with object.after property routine and the above DoLook code

Pretty sure that's all I wanted to talk about for now! New Roodylib update coming soon!

more character stuff

So, the character DoGet stuff mentioned two posts ago allows >GET ALL FROM <character>. I was thinking about how this will not always be optimal behavior and what to do about that.

There's probably a grammar-based solution (especially if you use Roodylib's GRAMMAR_HELPER stuff), and actually, that is probably the easiest way to deal with it.

Still, if you want to avoid grammar-tampering, another way to do it is to replace the ExcludeFromAll routine:

replace ExcludeFromAll(obj)

{

if obj is hidden

return true

! Exclude things NPCs are carrying unless the NPC is explicitly

! given as the parent

if parent(obj) is living

{

! if IsPossibleXobject(parent(obj)) or parent(obj) = player

! return false

return true

}

return false

}

Making sure it always returns true when the parent is living gets the player a "Nothing to get." message when he tries >GET ALL FROM <character>. To change this, we'll need to add a case to NewParseErrror:

replace NewParseError(errornumber,obj)

{

     select errornumber

case 9

{

if xobject is living and children(xobject)

{

"You will have to specify one object at a time."

return true

}

else

return false

}

         case else : return false

     return true

}

So yeah, that's that. To do more complicated behavior, like allowing the first item but not allowing the rest, I'd probably incorporate the use of a global or, more likely, the word array (with SaveWordSetting and CheckWordSetting), but that  scenario is unlikely enough that I won't put it together unless I need it myself or someone asks for it.