[Freeciv-Dev] Re: commandline syntax and semantics (was: Server/ruleset unification)

[Raimar Falke <hawk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, Sep 30, 2001 at 10:56:02PM +0200, Reinier Post wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 30, 2001 at 07:21:01PM +0200, Raimar Falke wrote:
> 
> > > To denote an object, you could use
> > > 
> > >   + field names (eg. 'ailevel', 'players')
> > >   + the value of the 'name' field or a case-insensitive prefix (eg. 
> > > 'Eliz')
> > >   + with lists, index numbers (eg. '5')
> > >   + with lists, syntax to denote the last and (last+1)-th element
> > > 
> > >   + rules to omit full path names in contexts where they can be derived
> > 
> > This may be a bit to much for the first version. The first version
> > should have the same power as the current code. You can program code
> > to understand various short cuts later.
> 
> I agree, except that name prefixes to indicate objects are already used
> (for players), so this must be supported anyway.
> 
> > > A distinction must be made between pointers and their values
> > > (usually objects or lists).  This is only important when a
> > > pointer is used as the right hand side in an assignment:
> > > 
> > >   set "Dresden".worklist = "Leipzig".worklist
> > 
> > Do we really need such constructs? I agree that there are some
> > problems if such powerful constructs are introduced.
> 

> They will be needed to express savegames.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Why? The server
variable-or-ruleset problem is a real one. It is ok if the savegame
will hold the unified parameter (whenever form they will finally
have).

> They will definitely be needed if this language is to be extended to
> be a client-side scripting language (a human readable, and more
> powerful, version of the existing binary protocol) but that may
> never arrive.

This is a completely different problem IMHO. Some thoughts: you need
also commands for normal packets like move-unit, build-city,... If you
have a parser for this at the server you can also remove all packets
and use such text-based packets. In the long run this allow more
flexibility and easier extension. But this now a no-issue since we
don't have a client side scripting.

        Raimar

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