Wow

Within just a couple hours of that last post, I was blown away by the generosity of a donation.  Not having any huge Roodylib-related tasks on my plate right now, I decided that it's time I put more effort into making Roodylib's documentation presentable.  I spent a couple hours already making an outline of topics I'd like to cover (with it all being easily browsable), resulting in this:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Il43tgoKx1urUcJMkpAJLVH9UupLFi3IL_ICEbg9QNU/edit?usp=sharing

I still have to order it so all of the things most useful to new authors and authors-getting-acquainted-with-Roodylib are explained first.  Right now, the plan is to write the entire thing in LibreOffice, but I may export to PDF for the final copy (in the past, I used an open document just because I figured I could use it basically as a fancy readme text file, but I guess there's no real reason I can't just make the whole thing look nicer).

Anyhow, one thing I'd probably like to do in the documentation is have bits of sample code here and there.  Anyone have any experience with inserting code in open documents (what styles/formatting look best, is there a nice extension for this, etc)?  So far, googling hasn't exactly been my friend, and any advice would be appreciated.

added a paypal button

Now, considering that Hugo has like 5 users in the world, I don't actually expect any money to come in, especially with everyone having mortgages and family and this and that to take care of.  Just the same, things have been tight for me, too, and I figured I might as well put the option out there just in case anyone wants to contribute but just hadn't thought of it yet.

To be perfectly honest, donations probably wouldn't make the next major release of Roodylib come out any quicker (since I work on it pretty consistently anyhow), but if any patron has a particular feature they'd like to see incorporated into Roodylib (or the creation of a useful object class), those things will be given a high priority.  Actually, even if you can't afford to donate anything, if anyone has anything they'd like to see, just let me know.  I'll probably do it, ha.

I was going to finish this post with links to other people who I feel contribute a lot (much more than myself) and would be great options to support, but finding donation buttons for them was harder than I remembered.  I'll have to edit this post after I've talked to them to see if there are pages I've missed.

Configuration Files

I don't remember what prompted it, but something got me thinking about configuration files in Hugo and how I never perfectly designed a way to detect if an interpreter fully supports them.

See, the FILE_CHECK constant-checking method described in the Hugo manual doesn't work with Gargoyle.  Not only that, but Gargoyle can read configuration files- just not write to them- so if a configuration file has been created by another interpreter, previously, the game could easily be tricked into thinking everything is working fine.  Adding even more complication is that configuration-file-writing does work in the glk Hugo interpreter (even though no one ever uses that one) so I couldn't just do a simple "minimal port"check.

So I brought my attention to this the other day.  Eventually, my fix for the problem involved using Hugo's system-time-catching functionality (along with Future Boy!'s time-handling routines) to take the current time, save it to the configuration file along with everything else, then read the time back from the configuration file.  Then it calculates the difference between the two times, and if it's longer than 5 seconds (I'm trying to account for really slow computers here even if a 2 second timer would probably still be playing it safe), it calls the configuration error routine (so a game like "the Halloween Horror" can quit out, as it relies on configuration files).

In other news

Herr Jizaboz finished his demo game about a tourist in North Korea.  I've helped him with it here and there.  I hope people get a big kick out of it!

A Day in DPRK

Also....

Looks like there was a Notepad++  update so I also updated the Hugo Notepad++ distribution.  You can get it here.

Formatting

In that last bout of Roodylib attachables improvement, playing around with the "Vault of Hugo" sample game made me check out some other things, too.  Specifically, I was reminded that Roodylib's doublespace formatting option worked imperfectly.  This is how it looked when it attempted the Vault of Hugo's "Object Room."

(there are no commands listed since it is the result of a recording playback)

As you can see, spacing is inconsistent, with no extra lines between the two items with short_desc's (and all of the non-short_desc-related objects are clumped together, too).

I set out to fix this- and not only that, as I also decided I wanted Roodylib to have an option for smart room descriptions if the player is in an object (I had gotten a test case of this working months ago but it still required some code clean-up and adapting to put it into Roodylib).

Not only this, but I also wanted to make sure that rooms printed properly with the LIST_F format option on.  This is the setting that does "tall" listings like those in Zork:

>look

West of House

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.

There is a small mailbox here.

The small mailbox contains:

  A leaflet

>

I can't remember how broke the alignment was before I started this latest wave of improvement.  Might have not been that broke, but with Hugo, "The small mailbox contains:" was indented once and the next line twice.  This was probably intentional, but to be honest, I prefer the Zork version.  Hugo also didn't capitalize the article for children like "A leaflet".  I've changed that, too, since again, I liked the Zork way.  If I had my druthers, I'd make both of these things optional but as it is, configuring DescribePlace to your needs is already going to be a bunch of global variable tinkering and flag setting.  Still, one day I might re-design the WhatsIn and ListObjects routines so they're much more configurable.

While I was at it, I also added my system for smarter listing when the player in a container in the room (it's possible to configure it to also do platforms, but it was hard to come up with a wording that'd work for all cases- if you're on a chair, do you really want to describe all other objects in the room as "off the chair"?).

FORMAT global set to DESCFORM_F and COOL_PARENTS flag set

FORMAT with LIST_F (you'll notice that I changed how Indent works with LIST_F just so the two systems use the same logic)

The cauldron and the grandstand listed are not in the original game.  I added them just to test the part of DescribePlace's code that lists the children of scenery items.

Now let's take a look at some of the behavior if the NEW_DESCRIBEPLACE flag is set.

NEW_DESCRIBEPLACE with doubles-pacing on

The new DescribePlace defaults to having children of scenery listed right away, right after children of parent-of-player.  I figured it's better for them to be closer to wherever they were mentioned in the room text.  Ideally, I'd have an extra check in there to list attachables-connected-to-scenery objects right up there, but I don't think that comes up enough to justify the extra work for now.

With double-spacing on, it only prints newlines (and the extra space) when it needs to.  All those extra spaces might look kind of ugly in that example right there (since that room has so many objects), but I'm fairly certain that it'll look quite nice in the average IF game.

I'm pretty happy with the different options I've given the DescribePlace system although the extra settings I've created could probably use some finessing.

Right now, there are the following additional Roodylib options:

• Set the "COOL_PARENTS" flag (this gives the room better relative text when the player is in a container in the room)...  My gripe about this name is that it's close to my SMART_PARENTS flag (which gives better responses when a player tries to go in an unavailable direction while, like, sitting in a chair or something).
• Give FORMAT the DESCFORM_I mask. DESCFORM_I gets rid of the extra new line before a room title is printed, based on Infocom layout (hence the I).  Just the same, the F in DESCFORM_F probably stands for "flag" so changing it to I is probably just confusing.
• Set the "NEW_DESCRIBEPLACE" flag.  This gives the extra functionality of the new DescribePlace code.  I'm pretty fine with this one.
• Give FORMAT the DESCFORM_D mask.  If the new DescribePlace system is on, this turns on double-spacing.

Beyond the probably-confusing names of my new masks and flags, I'm not sure I even want to expect new authors to know how to change this stuff- if I recall correctly, FORMAT masks are covered very briefly in the manual; pretty sure I learned most of what I know just by looking at hugolib.h.

I'd like to make it easier for authors by creating some routines that will set the game to the formatting they prefer, but even that is kind of a headache. *

* I was going to continue with the annoying aspects of trying to design and name helper routines, but I think I might have an idea I'd like to play with.  Stay tuned!

automatic door unlocking/opening

So, in posting that "Vault of Hugo" transcript the other day, I was reminded my dissatisfaction over the messaging in my first attempt at automatic door unlocking.  Here's the applicable part again:

>dig ground
You find a rusty iron key!
(Taken.)

>e
(unlocking the vault door first)
(with the rusty iron key)
Unlocked.
(opening the vault door first)
Opened.
It's pitch black in here. Stumbling around in the dark isn't such a hot idea: you're liable to be eaten by a grue.

>

Now, the automatic-door-unlocking was one of the first things ever added to Roodylib so, of course, I've learned a lot since then and I thought it was worth taking another swing at it.  Here is a transcript of what would happen now:

>dig ground
You find a rusty iron key!
(Taken.)

>e
(unlocking the vault door with the rusty iron key first)
Unlocked.

(and then opening it)
Opened.

It's pitch black in here. Stumbling around in the dark isn't such a hot idea: you're liable to be eaten by a grue.

>

As you can see, it now combines information where it can, and I added some spacing to make it prettier.  The "(and then opening it)" message was especially tricky to do, but I think the code I threw together should work well enough (it relies on checking the parser_data[PARSER_STATUS] value, and I don't see that changing anytime soon).

I also threw in an option where, if the key object is set quiet, a regular >UNLOCK DOOR asks the player to be more specific or in something like the instance above, does:

>dig ground
You find a rusty iron key!
(Taken.)

>e
The vault door is locked.

>unlock door with key
Unlocked.

>lock door
(with the rusty iron key)
Locked.

>e
(unlocking the vault door with the rusty iron key first)
Unlocked.

(and then opening it)
Opened.

It's pitch black in here. Stumbling around in the dark isn't such a hot idea: you're liable to be eaten by a grue.

>

 I figure there might be instances where you want the player to figure out which key is correct.  After being used correctly once, it'll do automatic unlocking/locking no problem from then on.

Anyhow, I wanted to put the feature there, but I doubt many people will use it so I won't even go to the trouble of aliasing quiet to another more-apt attribute name to be used in these instances.

Attachables

In preparation of the next official release of Nikos Chantziaras' Hugor, I've been playing through Kent Tessman's Future Boy! again as it is basically the only Hugo game in existence that uses Hugo's movie feature.

In one late scene, there is a rope and a wheelbarrow (the wheelbarrow isn't especially important- I get the feeling it mostly exists just to show off Hugo's capabilities) and I found some inconsistent behavior.  This got me looking at Hugo's attachables code, in particular how it works with pushable items (like Roodylib's USE_ROLLABLES switch).

It took a couple attempts, but I eventually got Roodylib working as I would like it.  To test it out, I made the mine car in "Vault of Hugo" a pushable object.  Here is a transcript with the new code in place:

You brace yourself, check your flashlight, and, with source code in hand, prepare to enter...

THE VAULT OF HUGO
An Interactive Example
Hugo v3.1 / Library 31031

Outside a vault
Kind of that 1930s, Bela Lugosi, graveyardy motif at work here. It's a pretty creepy place. Directly in front of you is the giant door to an even more giant vault. Above the door hangs a rusty sign.

>dig ground
You find a rusty iron key!
(Taken.)

>e
(unlocking the vault door first)
(with the rusty iron key)
Unlocked.
(opening the vault door first)
Opened.
It's pitch black in here. Stumbling around in the dark isn't such a hot idea: you're liable to be eaten by a grue.

>turn on light
A beam of serviceable light appears from your flashlight.

Inside the vault
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
An old mine car sits abandoned to one side.

>push car n
Something seems to be stopping the mine car from rolling.

>look under car
You find a big rock lodged between the wheels, which you manage to wrestle out of the way.

>push car n
You push the mine car over to the...

Object Room
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
An old mine car sits abandoned to one side.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, and an opaque box are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
A heavy rope is tied to the wooden chair.

The mine car slows to a stop.

>tie rope to car
You tie the heavy rope to the mine car.

>push car s
You can't move the mine car while the heavy rope is still tied to to the wooden chair.

>enter car
You get in the mine car.

Object Room, in a mine car
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, and an opaque box are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
A heavy rope is tied to the wooden chair and the mine car.

>drive s
You can't go anywhere while the heavy rope is still tied to the wooden chair and the mine car.

>out
You get out of the mine car.

>untie rope from chair
You untie the heavy rope from the wooden chair.

>push car s
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)
You push the mine car over to the...

Inside the vault
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
A big rock and a mine car are here. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

The mine car slows to a stop.

>enter car
You get in the mine car.

Inside the vault, in a mine car
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A big rock is here.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

>drive n
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)

Object Room, in a mine car
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, and an opaque box are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

>get rope
Taken.

>push car s
To walk, you will have to get out of the mine car. Otherwise, try "roll" or "drive" and a direction.

>drive s

Inside the vault, in a mine car
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A big rock is here.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>out
You get out of the mine car.

>push car n
You push the mine car over to the...

Object Room
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, an opaque box, and a mine car are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

The mine car slows to a stop.

>enter car
You get in the mine car.

Object Room, in a mine car
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, and an opaque box are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>drive e
You can't roll that way.

>drive s

Inside the vault, in a mine car
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A big rock is here.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>drive e

Character Room, in a mine car
The Character Room provides a couple of good examples of character scripts and events. Exits are north and west.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A burly guard is here.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

The guard lifts his big boot up to the mine car and gives you a firm shove back out the door. "Not in that thing, you don't, pal!"

Inside the vault, in a mine car
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A big rock is here.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>drop rope outside car
Dropped.

>drive e
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)

Character Room, in a mine car
The Character Room provides a couple of good examples of character scripts and events. Exits are north and west.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A burly guard is here.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

The guard lifts his big boot up to the mine car and gives you a firm shove back out the door. "Not in that thing, you don't, pal!"

Inside the vault, in a mine car
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A big rock is here.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

>out
You get out of the mine car.

>push car e
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)
You push the mine car over to the...

Character Room
The Character Room provides a couple of good examples of character scripts and events. Exits are north and west.
A burly guard is here.
A mine car is here. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

The mine car slows to a stop.

The guard lifts his big boot up to the mine car and gives you a firm shove back out the door. "Not with that thing, you don't, pal!"

Inside the vault
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
A big rock and a mine car are here. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A heavy rope is tied to the mine car.

>get rope
Taken.

>e
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)

Character Room
The Character Room provides a couple of good examples of character scripts and events. Exits are north and west.
A burly guard is here.
A mine car is here. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

The guard lifts his big boot up to the mine car and gives you a firm shove back out the door. "Not with that thing, you don't, pal!"

Inside the vault
Standing in the middle of this dimly lit chamber, you realize that just maybe you should've splurged on a more expensive flashlight. You also realize that there are four ways you can go: a marble archway to the north, a muddy cave opening to the east, an oak door set in a brick frame to the southeast, and west back outside where you came from.
A big rock and a mine car are here. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>n
(with the heavy rope tied to the mine car)

Object Room
This room contains a collection of objects with different properties, attributes, and associated routines in order to give some idea of basic object design. In addition to the various furnishings, you notice a dartboard hanging on one wall.
A large drum--not the musical kind--is here. Attached to it is a warning note.
Lying in the corner of the room is a non-descript, unnamed object.
A wooden chair, a card table, a transparent box, an opaque box, and a mine car are here.
A deck of playing cards has been placed appropriately on the table.
Also sitting on the card table are three shiny gold coins and a pad of paper. The old mine car is loaded with a pencil.
A green dart is sticking out of the old dartboard.
The heavy rope that you're holding is tied to the mine car.

>

So, if you read carefully, you may have noticed that it mentions the attachables if the rope is being dragged or pulling something, but it doesn't if the player is just holding it (I also added some code so held attachables tied to something in the room are mentioned in the room's description).

My new code might not work in every situation (in fact, I can think of at least one instance in which it won't), but attachables are so rarely used in any case; if the day comes that an author codes something that doesn't work with the new code (specifically, the attachable would have to be tied to something in a container and the player would have to GO in a direction that leads to a locked door or something), I'll be happy to help them tweak their code so that it works.

Interestingly, playing around with "Vault of Hugo" inspired me for what I'd like to work on next, too, which is smarter room descriptions when the player is in a container or on a platform.  I've successfully coded that in the past so it's mainly a case of integrating it into Roodylib as cleanly as possible.

Roodylib 4.0 and Hugo Notepad++

So, official Roodylib 4.0 is out!  Here is my announcement from the couple places I posted about it:

"Roodylib," my collection of updates to the Hugo library files, just had its 4.0 update. I feel that it's come a long way and has plenty of nice bug fixes and added functionality. I'd hope that any Hugo author checks it out. I've uploaded it to the IF Archive (should be in "unprocessed" right now), but you can always download the latest official version here, too: https://goo.gl/0s67c4

Windows Hugo users new and old may also be interested in a Notepad++ package I've put together for Hugo (this seems allowable by its licensing as it only insists that info remains intact for finding the official Notepad++ site and I did not delete any of the included readme's). It adds several toolbar buttons for easy compilation and running games, and it handles directory management (one of the trickier things, IMO, for the budding Hugo author). Best of all, it's a standalone program so it can be put on a USB stick and carried from computer to computer. Download Hugo Notepad++

As you can see, I didn't really go into new features and fixes.  For that, you'll want to take a look at the changelog text file in roodylib_suite.zip or even look at all of the new comments in roodylib.h.

I already have plenty of ideas for the next Roodylib release.  Some are:

• Overhaul the entire pronoun system. I was going to do this for 4.0, but when I polled the public, I found there were too many competing theories on how pronouns should work. Instead of trying to sort it out all now, this task has been moved to "someday."
• Add some commands with accessibility in mind (specifically, for the visually impaired).  One thought is a "STATUS" command that reiterates the information that is displayed in the status bar.  Another idea is a "PROMPT" command to change the prompt for people with text-to-speech software (something like >PROMPT "What now?"  so the prompt is "What now?" instead of ">").
  
  This idea has actually been on my mind for months, and I've tried to get in touch with the visually-impaired gaming community for their suggestions but my attempts did not work.  Luckily, a thread about this showed up on the intfiction forums, and one fellow in particular is going to research the issue to find out what more can be done.  I'll re-visit this idea then.
•  I'd like to add FakePrompt to Roodylib, with some extra routines to automatically draw windows for whatever question is being asked (FakePrompt is a cool way to get the exact thing a player types without having to try to train them to put it in quotation marks).
• I'd like to also just incorporate a handful of other extensions into Roodylib, just so authors don't have to go searching around for too many things every time they start a new project.  Much easier to just add a flag to their code, I would think.
• It's not Roodylib, but I also need to re-visit Hugo By Example and update a ton of its pages.  The whole "replacement routines" category is pretty much what turned into Roodylib, and it'd probably be better to just have a nice Roodylib section where I explain how things work better.  That and just general updating all around.

So, I have all of those ideas, but I'm hoping to ignore them all for a while and spend some time on my own games.  I really neglect them when I have Roodylib things to work on, and it'd be good if I made some progress.  We'll see how it goes!