Special Commands

I needed a method for setting the replacement text of aliases from the command line. To accommodate this there are "dot commands". This is also useful for executing some extra commands (like closing the window without asking to keep the service alive) from buttons/command line.

Contents:

1. Setting alias replacement text
2. Special function commands
   1. Color Debug Mode
   2. Close Window Now!
   3. Timer Operation
   4. Pipe to Keyboard
   5. Toggle Fullscreen
   6. Do Bell
   7. SpeedWalk
   8. Load Button Set
   9. Clear All buttons
3. Muds that need commands with leading periods

Setting alias replacement text

• The format required to execute an alias replacement text swap is:
  • .alias argument string
    • where alias is the text to replace.
    • where "argument string" is the text to replace it with.

Example Alias Update

1. An alias set up with the text to replace "starget"
2. A button with the primary command "stab starget"
3. Typing ".starget bear" will update the starget replacement text to bear, and allow you to press the button and have "stab bear" sent to the server.

Special function commands

Color Debug Mode

• A fast way to modify the properties of the drawing routine was needed to aid in debugging color problems.
  • The command is ".colordebug arg"
    • Where "arg" is an integer 0,1,2 or 3 that correspond to the following debug modes.
      • 0:Normal color processing, ansi color codes are processed and not displayed.
      • 1:Debug Mode 1, ansi color codes are processed and also displayed. Currently the buffer is not line broken to the color code additions, so the font size will need to be reduced in order to fit complete lines to the screen width (if needed).
      • 2:Debug Mode 2, ansi color codes are not processed (all text will be white), but are drawn in the text window (also white).
      • 3:Debug Mode 3, ansi color codes are not processed (all text will be white), and are not drawn in the text window.

Example of Color Debug

• Entering ".colordebug 3" will remove all color processing, so all text should appear white.
• Entering ".colordebug 0" will resume normal color processing operations.
  • Can be used as the commands for buttons. Easy switching!

Close Window Now!

• Exiting the main program window and keeping the service alive can be done from the command line or buttons. Exiting the window and keeping the service alive was only done through pressing the back button and answering yes to the dialog.
  • The command is ".closewindow"

Example of Close Window Now!

• Create a button and have its command be ".closewindow", Pressing this button will immediately close the window and leave the service running.

Timer Operation

• Timers can be operated from buttons and the command line. The command name is ".timer function index [silent]" where
  • function is the operation: play, pause, reset, info
    • play, pause and reset will do exactly as they are and throw a toast message describing the options. The silent flag can suppress the toast message.
    • info will give you a toast message with the time remaining on the timer, e.g "Timer 0: 13 seconds left."
  • index is the integer value displayed next to the timer in the timer selection dialog.
  • [silent] is an optional flag that when specified, will suppress the toast message describing the action.

Example of Timer Operation

• Having a button with ".timer info 0" as the primary command will display a toast message with the status of the timer at index 0.

Pipe to Keyboard

• Buttons can replace/append text to the input bar and optionally pop it up. The command name is ".keyboard [popup]|[add]|[flush]|[close]|[clear] message"
  • The "popup" flag will replace the current input bar text with "message" and pop up the keyboard. Can be combined with "add".
  • The "add" flag will append the current text to the input bar. Can be combined with "popup".
  • The "flush" command will transmit and clear the contents of the input bar. Any supplied message will be lost.
  • The "close" flag will close the software keyboard if it is open. Does not affect text in the input bar.
  • The "clear" flag will clear the input bar of any existing text.

Example of Keyboard Command

• A button with the click command ".kb popup reply " will pop up the keyboard with the text "reply " in the input bar.

Toggle Fullscreen

• The full screen mode that hides the notification bar can be toggled with ".togglefullscreen"
  • This operation takes no arguments.

Example of Toggle Fullscreen

• A button with the click command ".togglefullscreen" will show/hide the notification bar when pressed.

Do Bell

• As of 1.0.5, BlowTorch supported the bell character. The options are on the Options Page, but if you just want to force a bell event to happen, use ".dobell"
  • This operation takes no arguments.

Example of Do Bell

• Trigger that fires an ack with action ".dobell" will cause a bell event to be generated, causing either the vibration, notification or visual bell as per the options.

SpeedWalk

• The speedwalk command is ".run directions" where directions can be n,e,s,w,h,j,k or l, and each direction may have an integer value preceding it to execute the direction the specified number of times.
  • n = north
  • e = east
  • s = south
  • w = west
  • h = northwest
  • j = northeast
  • k = southeast
  • l = southwest
  • The direction stream may be broken and resumed with commas "," and commands may be inserted into the direction stream.
• The speedwalk command is also configurable, press MENU->More->Speedwalk configuration to bring up the editor. The editor allows the configuration of single character "directions" to server commands. In this way if a server only accepts long form "southwest" commands, you can change BlowTorch to send that to the server when "l" is in the direction stream.
  • To edit an existing direction, press the hexagon bolt in the row entry.
  • To delete an existing direction, press the red X delete button in the row entry.
  • To Add a new mapping, press the "New Direction" at the bottom of the screen.

Example of .run command

• ".run 3d3snjk" will send, d;d;d;s;s;s;n;ne;se to the server.
• ".run 3d3s,cross bridge,njk" will send, d;d;d;s;s;s;cross bridge;n;ne;se to the server.
• ".run 3d3s,cross bridge,open gate,njk" is invalid, only one command may be used between the commas. If multiple commands are needed, break the command up with semicolons (;)

Load Button Set

• The load button set command syntax is ".loadset setname" where setname is the named button set to be loaded. Execution of this command may happen from triggers, aliases, or other buttons. This command will replace the "Load Named Set" option under the button property editor. This command also allows buttons to execute commands, as well as change button set.

Example of .loadset command

• .loadset default_settings will load the button set named default_settings.
• A button with the command "runto town;.loadset home_town" will send the command "runto town" to the server as well as loading the button set named home_town.

Clear All Buttons

• The clear all buttons command syntax is ".clearbuttons" with no argument. It will remove all the buttons from the currently loaded set, and add one programatically generated "back" button in the lower right that will always return to the set that was last loaded. It is designed to replace the need for having a "blank" button set and having linking buttons between the desired set and the empty set.

Example of .loadset command

• A button with the command ".clearbuttons" will clear all the buttons on the screen when pressed. It will provide a single button to re-load all the buttons that were unloaded when the command was given.

Muds that need commands with leading periods

Currently there is no way to change the "." part of the command to another character if desired, but in the future that will be configurable.

Some MUDs may expect you to send commands with a dot, if you want to send these commands, a double dot "..command" will be sent to the server as ".command" if dot command processing is enabled.

To toggle special command processing, enter ".." on it's own and the special command processing will be toggled.