TADS Programming - Complex Items

First of all, a class for complex items.  It does nothing except
say yes, they are complex.

class complex: item
iscomplex = true
;

Okay.  What we have here is a new function I created.  It looks
much like listcont, but is only ( and always ) called to get the
item listing for a room.  Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, this
will allow us to give long descriptions for some objects, and
short ones for the rest.  Note the long descs are only used in
room listings, not for containers.

roomcont: function( obj )
{
local i, count, tot, ctot, stot, list, slist, clist, cur, disptot;
    count := 0;
    list := obj.contents;
    slist := [];
    clist := [];
    tot := length( list );
    i := 1;

The first thing to do is to sort the items.  Items with complex
descriptions are added to the c(omplex)list, and everything else
is added to the s(imple)list.

    while ( i <= tot )
    {
        cur := list[i];
        if ( cur.iscomplex )
        {
            clist := clist + cur;
        }
        else
        {
            slist := slist + cur;
        }
        i := i + 1;
    }

Now we can define some things.  And reset i, the generic counter.

    ctot := length( clist );
    stot := length( slist );
    disptot := itemcnt ( slist );
    i := 1;

Print the items on the clist first...

    if ( ctot )
    {
        while ( i <= ctot )
        {
            cur := clist[i];
            cur.cdesc;      // list this object's cdesc
          if ( cur.islamp and cur.islit ) " (providing light)";
          (Do we need extra space or not?)
            if ( not ( ( i + 1 ) > ctot ) )
            {
                "  ";
            }

            i := i + 1;
        }
    }

...reset values...

    i := 1;

...and go on and print the items with normal descs, as usual.

    if ( stot )
    {
Do we need some spaces first?
    if ( ctot )
        "  ";
Now, let's proceed.
    "You see ";
        while ( i <= stot )
        {
            cur := slist[i];
            if ( cur.isListed )
            {
                if ( count > 0 )
                {
                    if ( count+1 < disptot )
                        ", ";
                    else if (count = 1)
                        " and ";
                    else
                        ", and ";
                }
                count := count + 1;
                cur.adesc; // list this object
         if ( cur.islamp and cur.islit ) " (providing light)";
            }
            i := i + 1;
        }
        " here.";
    }
}

Now, all that's left is to modify the function used to look
around...

modify room
nrmLkAround( verbosity ) = // lookAround without location status
    {
        local l, cur, i, tot;

        if ( verbosity )
        {
            "\n\t"; self.ldesc;


            l := self.contents;
    tot := length( l );
    i := 1;
            while ( i <= tot )
            {
        cur := l[i];
                if ( cur.isfixed ) cur.heredesc;
                i := i + 1;
            }
        }
        "\n\t";
        if (itemcnt( self.contents ))
        {
            roomcont( self );
        }
        listcontcont( self ); "\n";

        l := self.contents;
tot := length( l );
i := 1;
        while ( i <= tot )
        {
    cur := l[i];
            if ( cur.isactor )
            {
                if ( cur <> Me )
                {
                    "\n\t";
                    cur.actorDesc;
                }
            }
            i := i + 1;
        }
    }
;

And voila!  Pretty cool, eh?  Yes, I know it is rather kludgey,
and possibly buggy.  Sorry.  All comments to
scythe@u.washington.edu.  Please do not claim this work as your
own, but please feel free to use and distribute.  Thank you

All that is needed to make an item complex is to make it class
complex, and give a cdesc for it.  For example:

nugget: complex, item
sdesc = "gold nugget"
ldesc = "It's a nugget of gold!"
cdesc = "A glittering gold nugget is here."
[...and so on.]

Enjoy!








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