Editing

   

An important thing is to work with a MOO client suited for development (see section 1.4). Unfourtunately, not many such clients do exist.

Also, it is useful to have a client that can ship code for editing to a local full-screen editor, preferably one that supports MOO coding. At TECFA itself (not all of our wizards) we use the rmoo/emacs client. An alternative is to use various (not so good hacks) with tinyfugue or the new tkmoo-light client. Use an emacs client if you know emacs and work under Unix, else hunt down a decent client, it is worth the trouble! If you really can't try to learn the in-MOO editor. (See section 1.4.3 for a description of some clients and also watch out for Java applets that will allow local editing)

Important: To use a local editor, 'type @edito +l'. This will ship everything you edit to your editor (if your moo client allows you to do that). Type 'help @editoptions' for details At TECFAMOO with the emacs/rmoo setup we use the following setup:

   >@edito
   Current edit options:
   -quiet_insert       Report line numbers on insert or append.
   -eval_subs          Ignore .eval_subs when compiling verbs.
   +local              Ship text to client for local editing.
   -no_parens          include all parentheses when fetching verbs.

Here is an example:

   >@edit #209:eat

If you use the in-line moo-client you will get something like this:

   Now editing #209:eat (this none none).
   >list
     1: choice = this.kinds[random(3)];
   __2_ player.location:announce_all(player.name, " mange un ", choice, ".");
   ^^^^

Type 'look' to see the commands available (well some day we just might write a MOO editor tutorial too).

In the emacs client you get this in a SEPARATE window:

   @program #209:eat
   choice = this.kinds[random(3)];
   player.location:announce_all(player.name, " mange un ", choice, ".");
   .

To ship the code back to MOO, press ctrl-C ctrl-S, and don't change the first and the last line (e.g. the ``.'')!! See section 1.4.3 for more details.