SYNTAX OF THE .MISC FILE FOR WANDER

The file contains all the location-independent information to describe a particular "world".

The file consists of a series of sections. The sections are:

	Introductory message
	Word definitions \|
	Pre-actions
	Post-actions
	Variables
	Notes

Any lines in the file that begin with a colon, ":" will be ignored as comments by Wander.

INTRODUCTORY MESSAGE

The introductory message is printed out when wander is first run. It is not printed out when wander files are switched during a run, (possible with the "init" verb and the "w=" | result field). |

The introductory message may be any number of lines in | length, (but is limited to a maximum of 1024 characters), | and may contain blank lines, but must not contain a line | beginning with a tab or space unless the entire message is enclosed in quotes. If blank space is required at the beginning of a line in an unquoted introductory message use an escaped space, "\ ", to begin the line. If you wish to include quote characters in the message they must also be escaped.

WORD DEFINITIONS |

Word definitions usually fall into two conceptual | categories, "verbs" and "objects" and will be treated that | way here although they may be intermingled freely if the | resulting confusion is unimportant. Note that since there | may be any number of "words" sections it is common to have a | section with the header "words (verbs)" and one with "words | (objects)". |

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WORD (VERB) DEFINITIONS |

This section is used for defining verbs that have several forms which should be equivalent (synonyms). It is not necessary to define verbs that don’t need synonyms, although it does no harm to do so.

The verb synonym section is headed by a line containing a tab or sqaces followed by the word "words" which is optionally followed by "verbs" or "(verbs)".

Verbs are entered one per line, followed by spaces or a tab and a number. This number is zero, (or omitted), if the verb is the primary form, (i.e. the form that the program will use when it prints the verb out for any reason). Synonyms will be folowed by ascending integers.

Confusing? For example, if "hit", "strike", "break", "battle" and "attack" are to be synonyms, with "attack" being the preferred form, the following would define them.

	attack
	0
	hit
	1
	strike
	2
	break
	3

battle 4

Note that "strike" must be followed by a "2" in the above, else it would not be a synonym for "attack".

WORD (OBJECT) DEFINITIONS |

This section is used for defining objects that either have | synonyms, or are to be placed in specific locations at the | beginning of the wander, (or being carried by the person | playing). |

The object definition section is headed by a line containing | spaces or a tab and the word "words" optionally followed by | something like "objects" or "(objects)". |

Objects are entered one per line, followed by spaces or tabs | and up to three numbers. |
The first number is zero if the object is the primary form | or an ascending integer if the object is a synonym. |
The second number is either the number of the location in | which the object is to appear, zero, or "-1" indicating that | the player is already carrying it. |
The third number is a flag indicating "special handling" | when describing the object. It is the sum of any | combination of the following numbers: |
1 The obj is singular even though it ends with an ’s’ |
2 The obj is plural even though it doesn’t end with an ’s’ |
4 The obj already contains an article; so don’t supply one |
8 The obj is a complete description as is; so don’t use |

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constructions like "there is a *** here" for it. |
16 This form of the obj is to be used ONLY when describing |
it in a location, not when being carried, dropped, etc. |
Note that 1 and 2 need only rarely be used, e.g. if you have | a ’princess’ she will be described as "some princess", as in | "there are some princess here", |
unless you specify a 1, but seldom do such examples seem to | arise. Note also that 8 usually requires 16, (i.e. 24), | whereas 16 doesn’t always require 8. If you use the 16 code | be sure that it is the zeroth synonym and that there is a | first synonym following it that can be used for the | carrying, dropping, etc. cases. |

Any omitted number is assumed to be zero. |

For example, if something called "credit card" is to appear | in location 26 and is to have "card" as a synonym, the | following would be appropriate: |

credit\ card 0 26 |
card 1 |

If the object "wallet" is to be carried by the player at the | very beginning then it would be defined as: |

wallet 0 -1 |

If the object "sword" is going to appear through some action | during the wander and will change subtly when it is being | carried then it could be defined as: |

sword 0 0 16 |
glowing sword 1 |

Note that the omitted numbers default to zeroes.

PRE-ACTIONS

Pre-actions are global actions that are checked before any local actions.

The order of search for matches to user commands is:
1) pre-actions (from .misc)
2) location.state actions (from .wrld)
3) location base state actions (from .wrld)
4) post-actions (from .misc)
5) built-in actions (quit, look, shell, etc)

The pre-actions section is headed by a line containing spaces or tabs followed by the word "pre", (actually only the "pr" is checked).

Each action takes one line which starts with spaces or tabs and has the same format as actions in the file, (see ".wrld" documentation for details)

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A typical use might be, in a situation where the credit card defined above must be "insert"ed into machines to be used and you’d like not to have to check in each location whether the user has the card, to include the following:

insert\ card o~card m="You don’t have a credit card." |

In the case that someone says "insert card" without having one, the above message will be output and no local action will be invoked. If, on the other hand, the card is there the "o~card" condition will not be met and searching will continue in the local actions.

POST-ACTIONS

Post-actions are used to provide default actions in the case that no local action is provided for a particular command. Their format is the same as pre-actions except that their header is a line beginning with spaces or tabs and the word "post".

A typical example is to provide a way of determining your credit balance at any time.

balance o~card m="You need a credit card to do that!"
balance o?card m="Your account now stands at %6% credits."
(This assumes that variable 6 contains the number of credits.)

VARIABLES

This section contains initializations of variables and is also a handy place to keep information about the use of variables.

The variables section is headed by a line containing tabs or spaces and the word "variables". The format for the following lines is:

variable number <SEP> initial value <SEP> comments.

For example:

0 0 number of treasures found
1 0 number of vampires killed
2 50 dollars in bank account
3 0 temp variable used for dice game
CUR_LOC 3 starting location
MAX_CARRY 4 maximum number of things that can be carried at once

Notice the use of the mnemonic names "CUR_LOC" and "MAX_CARRY"; these are special, built-in variables and are described further in "wander.doc".

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NOTES

The notes section is ignored by Wander and is provided as a convenient spot to record such things as reminders of expansion plans, etc.

The notes section is headed by a line containing tabs or spaces and the word "notes".

Notes can also be included anywhere in the file in lines that begin with ":".

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