Re: [gnome-mud] Alias on 0.11.2

[Mart Raudsepp <leio dustbite net>]

On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 15:54 +0200, Morlach DivineConflict wrote:
> Hello everybody,
> 
Hello,

> I am new here, but I've been an affectionate gnome-mud user for two
> years by now.
> I apologize for my not perfect English and for my lack of a technical
> language, but I am Italian and although I am a mud manageress, I am
> not a programmer.
> 
> I am writing here because I have a problem with the setting of aliases
> in the 0.11.2 version, currently running on an Ubuntu 9.04, and that I
> hadn't with the older version 0.10.7 compiled on Gentoo.
> I tried a Google search and I also tried to find something in this
> mailing list archive to solve my problem, but I could not succeed. I
> hope some of you could help me.
> 
> When in the older version (0.10.7) I set an alias and a replacement,
> the mud automatically runs the command I put in the replacement and
> allows me to add a further specification for that command during the
> game. I could, for instance, choose to type "fireball" to make a
> character execute the command "cast fireball" and specify the name of
> the victim in game.
> A simple "fireball John" works perfectly (the mud code runs a "cast
> fireball John").
> 
> With the new version (0.11.2) the layout has changed. If I put in the
> regex my short name for the spell ("fireball") and in the action list
> the full command ("cast fireball") the character only casts the spell
> on himself and I cannot add the target during the game.
> If I type "fireball John" it results in an unknown command.
> 
> I don't know if it's just me that can't make gnome-mud work properly
> or there's something wrong.
> I may add that our mud is based on a Merc2 code and that the new
> triggers features run perfectly and are very useful.
> 
> 
> Thank you in advance for your kind attention and for all the work
> you've done until now.


It appears that together with any script pattern matching changes done
inbetween the versions, aliases now work the same as trigger patterns.
This is quite unintuitive indeed, and quite hard to use.

So until this is reworked, this is how you can achieve what you want
with the 0.11.2 version:

Use a wildcard at the end of the alias pattern, so that it will actually
look at the remaining part of the alias command line you entered and be
able to do something with it.
So this could be the regex to use:

fireball(.*)

And the action list could be:

cast fireball%1

This will allow to cast fireball on yourself as well, but commands like
"fireball2" will patch it as well, and try to issue a "cast fireball2".

A regex with a space inbetween, such as
fireball (.*)
and an action list of
cast fireball %1
will allow to differentiate those better, but you can not cast on
yourself then anymore, unless you actually enter "fireball " with a
space afterwards.

Hope this helps for now until it is made back better and intuitive.

We really should code it back so, that any excess words after the
pattern match (the unmatched part) would automatically be added to the
end of the command automatically, so that it would work as it likely did
in version 0.10.7.


Best Regards,
Mart Raudsepp