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Novice Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 34

I'm not sure if this is a bug, my error, or a doc problem.

The math syntax is:

Syntax: #MAT varname expression

Yet when I do:

#MATH temp @amount + 1

It assigns the value of amount to temp and places temp in class 1, although this:

#MATH temp @amount+1

Works perfectly.

Nowhere in the doc does it say if the problem is spaced it needs to be in parenthesis. The syntax also doesn't show that there's a flag for class assignment.

Suggestion 1:
Change the doc to include a statement about spaces in equations and include an example like the one above, but correct. (#MATH temp (@amount + 1))

Suggestion 2:
Change the usage of math to follow suit like other functions (while/if/etc) So that the statement MUST be encapsulated in parenthesis or braces.

Suggestion 3:
Change the #MATH statement to not include any class assignment and instead process the statement after the second whitespace as the entire MATH problem.

Apprentice Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Posts: 190 Location: Canada

Just like most commands in zScript, if you need to use spaces, enclose your parameter in {}s...

#MATH temp {@amount + 1} should work fine :)

Otherwise the parser has to decide whether a space in your command call is a split for a separate argument, or if it's supposed to be part of the equation, which it cannot do.

Novice Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 34

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:36 pm

You don't actually need to use #math - #var will do the same thing if you enclose its value parameter in brackets (). I'd assume that #math has a class parameter because it's exactly the same as #var, but always evaluates its value.

So with that said, I've added the class parameter to the #math help file. I don't think it needs anything beyond that, because zScript commands always have problems if items are unbound and contain spaces, even when there are no extra parameters. Take #additem, for example.

Novice Joined: 17 Aug 2007 Posts: 34

That's better, at least. If I had seen the class parameter, I'd have assumed.

When working with scripting languages like this, it can be hard to tell, because there's no standard..

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 6:53 pm

Well, there's an internal standard, and now you know :P

No commands actually allow multi-word unbounded parameters. The ones that look like they do actually take a variable number of parameters and do something with them all afterwards (like #say concating them all together with spaces between and printing them on the screen). So it's consistent, anyway.

If you're that bothered, use Lua ;)