lyntinv 5.0.1

A MUD client

Lyntin V

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Name

Lyntin V

Description

Why Lyntin V

Lyntin V is a "hard fork," and/or "rebranding" of Lyntin. A great project, that has been abandoned for 15 or so years. But, I have now decided to take over, update, and further maintain it. The last major release was Lyntin 4.2, and since the code base has been updated from python 2.7 to python 3+, I have changed the name to Lyntin 5.0, or simply "Lyntin V."

Lyntin V is written entirely in Python--a nicely written and very portable programming language. Thusly, Lyntin V is platform independent. Lyntin V exposes the Python interpreter allowing more freedom than mere 'if you see this then send this' aliases and triggers.

This can include Python functions which do anything from setting a variable to forking a web spider. In addition, your code can interface with Lyntin V's code.

Lyntin V is great if:

1. you want a mud client that you can see the source code to and adjust it to suit your needs
2. you want a mud client that has a sophisticated API for enhancing and building bots/agents/triggers more advanced than "if you see this then do this"
3. you want a mud client that works on all your machines, has a text ui, a tk gui, and can also work over ssh/telnet

Lyntin V is not great if:

1. you prefer wizards and menus to the command line
2. you hate Python
3. you want fancy bells and whistles in the ui

Operating System Notes

Lyntin V works in most environments we can think of, but it has some caveats with the various operating systems due to differences between them.

Windows

Windows users should use either \ or / to denote directory separaters.

Examples::

#write c:\commandfile #write c:/commandfile

RedHat Linux

Depending on which version of RedHat Linux you have, you will have to install the Python RPM as well as the Python Tkinter RPM. If you don't install the Tkinter RPM, then you won't be able to use the Tk ui and it'll complain that it's missing a library when you try.

Mac OSX

Lyntin V works perfectly fine on MacOS X. Python already comes installed, so no additional steps are required.

Other Notes

If you encounter other operating system issues, let us know both the problem and the solution so we can add them here.

Getting Started

Type #help help for help on how to use the in-game help system.

Read through the #help readme topics. These will help as they will walk you through how Lyntin works, how to get additional help, where to go for answers, and what to do if you find a bug.
These are also exported into the README file.

You should read through the topics in #help commands for all the currently registered Lyntin commands.

Each user interface has its own help topic--these will be on the top level of the help structure.

To start, the #session command will allow you to start a session. When you're done, #end will close Lyntin.

All documentation that comes with Lyntin is also available on the Lyntin web-site. If you find problems with the documentation or have fixes for it, let us know on the lyntin-devl mailing list.

Lyntin V Command Handling

Lyntin V uses Lyntin commands to allow you to manipulate the Lyntin client and setup your session with aliases, variables, actions, and such. Commands start with the command character--by default this is #. It can be changed with the #config command. The command character can also do some other special things:

1. You can execute commands in another session by typing the command character and then the sesion name then the command. Example::

   #3k say hello - will say hello in session 3k #a #info - will run the #info command in session a

2. You can switch to another session by typing the command character and then the session name. Examples::

   #a - will switch to session a (if it exists) #3k - will switch to session 3k (if it exists)

3. You can execute a command in all sessions by typing the command character then all. Examples::

   #all say hello - will run "say hello" in all sessions

4. You can execute a command a number of times by typing the command character then a number, then the command. Examples::

   #5 say hello - will run "say hello" 5 times

Commands are separated by the semicolon. Semicolons can be escaped with the \ character. Examples::

say hello;wave - will run "say hello" then "wave" say hi! ;) - will run "say hi! ;)"

Command arguments can be enclosed with { }. This enables you to specify arguments that have spaces in them. Examples::

#alias a b - executes #alias with args "a" and "b" #alias {a} {b} - executes #alias with args "a" and "b" #alias {a} {say hi} - executes #alias with args "a" and "say hi" #alias a say hi - executes #alias with args "a", "say", and "hi" which will kick up an error (since the #alias command doesn't accept a third string argument)

{, } and \ can all be escaped with the \ character: \{, \}, and \.

Variable Evaluation

Variables get evaluated according to a new methodology we developed after disliking the Tintin way of doing things. This new methodology provides maximum flexibility and provides for some things that the Tintin variable evaluation did not provide for.

• Variables and placement variables with a single $ or % are evaluated/expanded. One layer of $s or %s is then stripped off when this evaluation occurs.

• Variables are matched by length of name. So if you have two variables a and ab, we'll test to see if the variable is ab before a. We also handle bracing of variable names like ${a} and ${ab} which will guarantee unambiguosity.

• Variable expansion is always done on user input before commands are evaluted. This means variables can be used as arguments to any commands, etc. It also means that if you want the variable actually in the command, you have to prepend another $.

• Variable expansion happens again when certain expressions are evaluated, such as action triggers, alias expansion, etc. Essentially, when any stored value gets expanded its variables will get expanded (typically whenever tintinmode would do its sole expansion.)

• Placement vars in actions and aliases support an expanded syntax based on python array slices. %0:1 will evaluate to the first and second arguments, while %0: will be all arguments, and %:-1 will be all but the last argument, etc.

Examples:

1. #action {$Myvar} {woo}

Will trigger whenever the value Myvar holds when this is entered (the original value of Myvar - it will not change if Myvar's value changes)

2. #action {$$Myvar} {woo}

Will trigger whenever the current value of Myvar passes by.

3. #action {$$$Myvar} {woo}

Will trigger whenever the literal string $Myvar is seen. Place more $s in if you wish to trigger on more of them, the first 2 will be stripped by the variable expansion processes.

4. #alias {hello} {$moo}

Will bind hello to $moo's current value.

5. #alias {hello} {$$moo}

Will bind hello to always expand to moo's current value at the time of expansion.

6. #alias {hello} {$$$moo}

Will bind hello to expand to the literal string $moo

7. #alias {hello} {$${moo}}

Will bind hello to expand to moo's current value at the time of expansion.

Lyntin V's Regular Expression Syntax

Lyntin V allows the use of regular expressions in various arguments for commands like #action, #highlight, and such. It uses a specific format to trigger using raw regular expressions rather than having your argument get escaped so it can be compiled into a regular expression. This allows you to write arguments using the simplest form that you can without having to adjust toggles and such.

For example::

#highlight {red} {*says:}

is the same as::

#highlight {red} {r[^.*?says:]}

The first one will undergo escaping and get transformed into ^.*?says\: (without the quotes) before being compiled into a regular expression.

The second one gets compiled without being escaped.

If you want to pass an "ignorecase" flag, do so after the end ]::

#highlight {red} {r[krynor]i}

will highlight all instances of krynor (ignoring case) as red.

For regular expression documentation, refer to the Python documentation at http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/re-syntax.html .

Note: It may have moved since this was written.

Bug Reports, Questions, Comments, Curses?

Lyntin was originally written by Lyn Headley. Lyntin was then maintained by Will Guaraldi ([e-mail]) from 1.3.2 to 4.0, and by Eugene up to 4.2? Not entirely sure the work done between 4.0 and 4.2, and who did it.

All ported from python 2.7 to 3.0, was done by me, Drexl Spivey ([e-mail]).

We appreciate ALL types of feedback.

Inevitably you will either run across a bug in Lyntin or the need for a feature to be implemented. When this happens, we ask you to provide as much information as you can:

• operating system, version of Python and version of Lyntin (from #diagnostics)
• stacktrace (if it's a bug and kicked up a stacktrace)
• explanation of what happened vs. what should be happening
• any other pertinent information

Enter this in the bugs forum or send it to the mailing list. Details for both are on the Lyntin web-site: https://gitlab.little-beak.com/drexl/portlyntintopython3.

How To Contribute

Development and maintenance is entirely managed by the maintainer right now. If you're interested in sending in bug fixes, please feel welcome. I'm extremely accomodating to most methods of sending in patches, however a diff -u against the code in cvs is great for this sort of thing.

All patches and such things should be sent to the mailing list at [e-mail]/ .

NOTE: Patches will not be applied unless the author either yields the copyright to the FSF or to me (and then I'll yield it to the FSF).

Please read through the web-site areas on coding conventions and such before sending in code.

Authors and acknowledgment

I have forked this project from two previous engineers I never really met, and only talked to briefly--if at all. So, full credit for any greatest should go to Eugene and Will. Of course, all errors are my own.

Drexl Spivey has ported the entire code base from Python 2 to 3, in some cases changing areas of code to make it compliant with Python 3+.

License

GNU GPLv3

Project status

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The latest release of Lyntin is always available from https://gitlab.little-beak.com/drexl/portlyntintopython3. Or, downloadable from PiPy (pip).

When communicating bugs or feature requests INCLUDE AS MUCH INFORMATION AS POSSIBLE. If you don't, I'll just ask you for it anyhow.

In-game help is accessed by typing #help. When you start Lyntin for the first time, type #help general and that'll get you started. Read through the various help files at your leisure.

Enjoy!

the Lyntin V development team - me. =)

The project is in active development and debugging. It's currently in BETA status. I have not had a chance to fine comb and test for bugs.