Individual Array indeces may now be referenced with a reference variable. Enjoy.
Currently Reading:
Caverns of the Snow Witch, I never finished this one yet. Also Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, because my son is a big Potter fan and I want to know what the fuss is about.
Referencing extended to Arrays
The new variable referencing facility has been extended to arrays and even array references… I’ve tested it even on function parameters and it seems to work which is awesome… exhaustive testing has not been done ‘cos, well, nobody seems to use this site much anyway let alone code as deeply as using reference variables (check out my tiny violin), but trust me, it’s pretty impressive stuff, and highly useful.
One tiny note:
You cannot reference individual array elements, because I haven’t REALLY implemented dereferencing properly, you can only reference the whole array and index it from there, e.g.
$x=(5,4,3,2,1);
$z=\$x[0] ;
&print $z; ## expecting 5?
…wont work.
Reference the whole thing and dereference the reference as if it were an array like so:
$x=(5,4,3,2,1);
$z=\$x;
&print $$z[0];
New! Reference Variables
Highly experimental but I now have implemented rudimentary Reference Variables and Pass-By-Reference for functions in SEL. For those who are not familiar with references in programming here’s how it is useful e.g.:
$x=5;
$y=\$x; ## $y is now a reference for $x
&print $$y; ## prints 5, note the DEREFERENCING with $$
$x=10;
&print $$y; ## prints 10 since $$y is effectively what $x is
Example of passing by reference to a function:
sub testPBR(\$x){
$$x=20;
return 5;
}
$z=&testPBR(\$x);
&print $x; ## prints 20! This is because $x has been modified in function
&print $$y; ## also prints 20 since $$y is still a reference to $x
&print $z; ## prints 5, this means you can modify as many vars as you like by calling a function and still have the return variable free for use.
Function Precedence Corrected
Functions with parenthesised parameters are now assessed in correct order of precedence by the core SEL engine now. This is probably the last major update to the core SEL engine necessary to make it technically correct, though there remains numerous minor glitches and ‘features’ of the mess that I started coding 23 years ago.
Advanced ABML buttons fixed
The Editor is now fully functional.
What is Beeblbrox reading?
This, and it’s absolutely everything I want so far from a gamebook, 700 references of dungeoncrawling goodness, well written, a decently thought out but simple mechanic system and beatifully presented. Mind you I am only about 20 references into exploring it – however I doubt it’s gonna go far wrong.
(No my minions, we don’t have permission to encode and publish it. One day, my adventure hungry little friends, one day…). Until then , buy your own: https://bluefoxcomics.com/products/arcane-rites-cult-of-the-pajoli-book-1-paperback
Borag Thung Earthlings
Ok, so, so far this isn’t exactly 2000A.D. of the Gamebook World, and I am hardly Tharg the Mighty. Here we are though. Zarjazz.
So it’s June 17th, 2022. I am sat almost butt naked except for my towel (yup, always know where your towel is) in my studio flat in a small town on the south coast of England wondering where on earth I can take this creaking web machine next. Having just succesfully flogged the idea of doing a blog to a good Fighting Fantasy companion (Rene Batsford, hopefully we will see his first offering with news of his upcoming gamebook shortly), it occurred to me that perhaps I should ‘smell the shit I’m shovelling’ and have a go at it myself.
Despite my handle being Beeblbrox, Tharg seems more appropriate I guess given I am attempting to bring far out adventure stories to your puny planet, as a theme for this blog. And hey, I gather in your primitive network you call the internet ‘mashups’ are all the rage these days. Personally I find them utterly abominable preferring Universe Integrity to my fiction but then, I’m not just doing this for me I guess.
Most basic stuff regarding site origins and inspirations can be found in the Creditations Page or the About Page… so I will attempt not to repeat myself here, and try to make this up to date and relevant. TBH I imagine, knowing me, that a lot of my posts will be obscure and irrelevant and sometimes even semi-psychotic – such is the price of being Hoopy. At least I haven’t crashed my starship into a sun lately anyway.
There are so many things I wish to add to the site one of my biggest problems is knowing where to actually focus myself at any one time. All I DO know is that about 6 years ago – maybe 10, it occurred to me that I am NEVER going to see the site I wish to see developed all by myself, and have so far spent a long time in an *almost* fruitless attempt at ‘acquiring and building a presence on the web with a view to teambuilding and forward processing collaborative goals’.
Excuse me I just choked on corporate buzzwords for a moment.
So, many will know me by now as a cantankerous old git with questionable ethics and an occasionally humerous outlook. Like many on that there internet I had pie in the sky notions of ‘my ideas’ being received with rapturous welcome and was appropriately sorely and sourly disappointed when I was more or less told ‘take a ticket and join the queue’, this was followed by what I can only describe as a VERY long sulk interspersed with ever more desperate attempts to get some more work done here.
And, thanks to my (real life) neighbour of 8 years now, it has gradually started sinking in that that is part of my problem – too much work and not enough play. Work IS a 4 letter word. Who the hell wants to join or even read about a crew where all you’re promised is endless internship, grind and slog? For the privilidge of hearing ‘meh, that was OK’ if you’re lucky at the end of it?
Not me that’s for sure, and I’m damn well sure it isn’t you either.
So to confound a famous quote ‘since brevity is the soul of wit, I shall be endeavouring to provide more art and less matter’ in the future. Or something like that anyway.
Spiffy Editor Fixed
Forget the last post, I’ve sorted it.
Do Not Use Main Editor
The so-called spiffy new editor is not as spiffy as I thought. It will destroy any code requiring literal strings surrounded by apostrophes i.e. most advanced tags will get deleted without as much as a by-your leave.
I’ve only just discovered this. My apologies of you have lost any work. I know I have lost loads. I will rectify it as and when I can recover my faith in the project.
The in-play editor works fine though. Whoop.