Wander.txt

WANDER                         4/80                        WANDER



NAME

     wander ‐ Fantasy story tool


SYNOPSIS

     wwaannddeerr [ world ] [ ‐‐rr[[ssaavveeffiillee]] ] [ ‐t# ]                    |


DESCRIPTION

     _W_a_n_d_e_r  is a tool for writing non‐deterministic fantasy sto‐
     ries.  The product is a story whose unfolding is affected by
     decisions made by the "reader."

     The  optional world argument is described below under WANDER
     FILES.

     The ‐‐rr flag allows continuation from  a  previously  "saved"
     wander.   If  the form "‐rsavefile" is used the saved wander
     is restored from "savefile".  "‐r" by itself refers  to  the
     default  save  file  for  the particular wander world, (e.g.
     "a3.save" for the world "a3").

     The ‐t# flag turns on tracing of action matching; ‘#’ repre‐
     sents a number whose value controls the amount of diagnostic
     output produced.


COMMANDS

     Wander includes several built‐in commands.  Aside from  rec‐
     ognizing the standard compass directions (and their abbrevi‐
     ations), and "up" and "down",  the  following  commands  are |
     recognized:

     inventory   list objects being carried
     take        pick up specified object
     drop        drop specified object
     quit        stop playing
     save        quit & save environment for later continuation
     restore     restore saved environment                        |
     look        print the long description of the current location
     history     print the last N commands                        |
     init        read new .wrld & .misc files, (switch worlds)    |
      The following debugging verbs only work if you own the files
     ~snoop      give a condensed list of possible actions
     ~goto m     move, magically, to location number "m"
     ~goto m.n   move to location "m" and put it in state "n"
     ~vars       print a list of all non‐zero variables
     ~version    print miscellaneous parameter information

     Whenever  the word "all" is encountered as the second recog‐ |

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WANDER                         4/80                        WANDER

     nized word of user input on a line it will be macro  expand‐ |
     ed.  This expansion replaces the word "all" with each object |
     in the current location  including  objects  being  carried. |
     E.g.  "drop  all"  may  expand to "drop keys; drop net; drop |
     leaflet".


WANDER FILES

     The _w_o_r_l_d argument is used to specify which fantasy  "world"
     you  wish  to explore.  Each world is described by a minimum |
     of two files.  One file, (with the  extension  _._w_r_l_d),  con‐
     tains all location‐specific information, (long and short de‐
     scriptions, local action keywords, conditions and  results);
     another  file,  (with the extension _._m_i_s_c), contains all the
     global information, (initial message, word synonyms, initial |
     object  locations  and  characteristics,  global action key‐
     words, conditions and results).

     These two files have identical first parts of  their  names,
     e.g.  if  you  wish  your world to be called "oz", you would
     name the files _o_z_._w_r_l_d  and  _o_z_._m_i_s_c  respectively  and  you
     would  execute  "wander oz".  If no _w_o_r_l_d is given when exe‐
     cuting _W_a_n_d_e_r_, the default _w_o_r_l_d "a3"  is  used,  (i.e.  the |
     files are "a3.wrld" and "a3.misc").

     A  third, optional file related to a particular world is the
     _._m_o_n file.  If such a file exists, (e.g.  _o_z_._m_o_n_)_, a  record
     of each user’s commands will be kept there.  If no such file
     exists, but  a  file  named  "/sys/games/.../WAND/wand.mon",
     (this  name  can be changed in "wandglb.c"), does exist then
     the record of user’s commands will be kept there.   If  nei‐
     ther  file  exists  or if the symbol "MONITOR" is defined as
     "0" in wanddef.h no record will be kept.  This record is of‐
     ten useful in two ways; it allows the author to see how oth‐
     er users respond to his/her world and it allows  the  author
     to type notes and suggestions as commands while running _W_a_n_‐
     _d_e_r and later use these notes while modifying the _._w_r_l_d  and
     _._m_i_s_c files.

     When  a  user  "saves"  his/her environment it is saved in a
     file whose name is  the  world  name  followed  by  ".save", |
     ("a3.save"  for  the  default  world,  "a3"), in the current |
     working directory.


FILE PROTECTION

     Typically, the author of a _W_a_n_d_e_r world will want the  _._m_i_s_c
     and  _._w_r_l_d  files  to be unreadable by others except through
     _W_a_n_d_e_r itself.  A simple way to do this is to generate,  for
     each  world, a small C program that runs setuid to the owner
     of the world and execs _W_a_n_d_e_r_.  For example, if "smith"  has
     files  /u/smith/oz.misc  and /u/smith/oz.wrld, the following
     program would suffice:


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WANDER                         4/80                        WANDER

     main()
     {
          execl("/usr/games/wander", "oz", "/u/smith/oz", 0);
     }

     This program would be compiled; a.out moved to "oz" in  some
     convenient  location  and  "chmod 4755 egypt" would be done.
     At this point running "oz" would make the  user  effectively
     "smith"  and  thereby  allow the oz files, (which would have
     mode 0600), to be read.

     It was decided that using encryption on the  files  was  too
     weak  a  defense  against  a dedicated world‐cracker and too
     much overhead to be worth the effort.


VARIABLES

     _W_a_n_d_e_r provides 128 variables (numbered 0 through 127) which
     can  contain  numeric  values  of ‐32768 through 32767.  The
     variables numbered 0 through 99 are general purpose and  may
     be  used freely; variables 100 through 127 are set aside for
     pre‐defined uses, (see below).  These variables  are  refer‐
     enced  with  two  syntaxes.   Some constructions require the
     specification of a variable number; for instance, "v=6.3" is
     used  to  set variable 6 to the value 3.  Note that here the
     "6" is automatically a variable number, while the "3"  is  a
     simple  number.  "%6%" would be used to specify substitution
     of the value contained in variable 6.  Thus, if  variable  3
     contains 5 and variable 6 contains 2, %3% is equal to 5, and
     %6% is equal to 2.  Moreover:

     "v=7.%3%" will set variable 7 to 5
     "v+%6%.4" will add 4 to variable 2
     "v?%6%.%3%" will test whether variable 2 is equal to 5.
     "m=The answer is %3%." will print out as "The answer is 5."


     The special variables and their mnemonic names are:
     CUR_LOC     100     current location
     PREV_LOC    101     previous location
     INP_W1      102     hash of first recognized word in inp comm
     INP_W2      103     hash of second recog word from inp comm
     INP_W3      104     hash of third recog word from inp comm
     INP_W4      105     hash of fourth recog word from inp comm
     INP_W5      106     hash of fifth recog word from inp comm
     INP_WC      107     number of words in input comm
     NUM_CARRY   108     # of things being carried
     MAX_CARRY   109     # of thing poss. to carry at once
     NOW_YEAR    110     year of decade (0:99)
     NOW_MONTH   111     month of year (1:12)
     NOW_DOM     112     day of month (1:31)
     NOW_DOW     113     day of week (0:6)
     NOW_HOUR    114     hour of day (0:23)
     NOW_MIN     115     minute of hour (0:59)
     NOW_SEC     116     second of minute (0:59)

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WANDER                         4/80                        WANDER

     NOW_ET      117     elapsed time in Wander (seconds)
     BREVITY     118     brevity of place descriptions            |
     LOC_VIEW    119     location description override            |
     OBJ_VIEW    120     object description override              |
     INP_N1      121     numeric value of first number from inp comm|
     INP_N2      122     numeric value of first number from inp comm|
     NUM_MOVES   123     number of "moves"                        |
     NUM_PLACES  124     number of "places" visited               |
                 125     reserved                                 |
                 126     reserved                                 |
                 127     reserved                                 |
     Note that the actual variable numbers used by these          |
     may vary in later releases but the                           |
     mnemonic names should not ‐‐ so use the mnemonics.           |

     A common use of these is the following action:

     back  v=CUR_LOC.%PREV_LOC%  m="Hmm, I think we came this way..."

     Note that "%INP_W1%", "%INP_W2%", etc. are replaced  by  the
     first,  second,  etc.  recognized input words when used in a
     text message.  Also note that, if you are carrying 5 things,
     "v?NUM_CARRY.5"  will  be  true while "v?%NUM_CARRY%.5" will
     only be true if variable 5 is equal to 5.  The two variables |
     INP_N1  and  INP_N2  are  set to the values of the first and |
     second "numbers" input in a command by the user.  The corre‐ |
     sponding  word  entries are set to the symbols "N1" and "N2" |
     so that the following constructions work:                    |

     "take N1 apples"  v+4.%INP_N1%  m="You now have %4% apples." |
     "add N1 and N2"   v=22.%INP_N1% v+22.%INP_N2% m="Sum is %22%"|

     The ".wrld" documentation describes the uses and  syntax  of
     variables in greater detail.


LOCATIONS

     _W_a_n_d_e_r  is usually set up for 256 to 512 numbered locations,
     (rooms, chambers, whatever), but this limit can  be  changed
     by  a parameter in the "wanddef.h" file.  Again, the ".wrld"
     documentation describes these further.


SYNTACTIC CONVENTIONS

     In reading both the .misc and .wrld files  _W_a_n_d_e_r  uses  the
     following conventions.  In order to allow reasonable format‐
     ting of lines the following conventions are implemented:     |

     \<LF> is completely ignored,                                 |
     \n is replaced by <LF>,                                      |
     \b is replaced by a <BS>,                                    |
     \t is replaced by <HT>,                                      |
     \r is replaced by <CR>,                                      |
     \" is replaced by " (not considered a "quote"),              |

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WANDER                         4/80                        WANDER

     \<SP> is replaced by <SP>                                    |

     In reading the file, each unescaped tab  is  replaced  by  a |
     single  space,  and  quotes are stripped off.  The resulting |
     <SP> and <LF> codes created by the escape sequence using ‘\’ |
     are turned into non‐delimiting <SP> or <LF> codes.  In addi‐ |
     tion, all <LF>, <HT> and <SP> codes that appear in a  quoted |
     sequence   of  characters  are  treated  as  non‐delimiters, |
     (‘"press red button"’ and ‘press\ red\ button’ generate  the |
     same  result),  Otherwise,  <SP> is used as the field delim‐
     iter, and <LF> is used as the  line  delimiter.   Throughout
     the  doc files the field delimiter may be described as "spa‐
     ces or tabs" indicating that one or more of these characters
     may  be  used  to delimit fields.  In some places "<SEP>" is
     used, meaning a separator, either spaces or tabs.


CAVEAT

     Peter found lots of time to write and play _W_a_n_d_e_r_;  however,
     when  it  came  time  to write documentation he found he was
     pressed for time (so what’s new?).  As a result, this  docu‐
     mentation  is  of the bare‐bones variety and probably loaded
     with errors.  Sorry.


BUGS

     Ho ho ho.


SEE ALSO

     WanderWrld.txt, WanderMisc.txt

               Copyright (c) by Peter Langston, N.Y.C.
                         All rights reserved.




















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