Zugg Software :: View topic

Beginner Joined: 13 Jul 2003 Posts: 17

This is really two questions, but here goes.

My mud uses RDMP, a propietary protocol, and I use this trigger to process an informational line that gets sent out every three seconds:

^RDMP @RDMP_code HEALTH (%d) (%d) (%d) (%d) (%d) (%d) (%d)$

#gag
#var RDMP_hp %1
#var RDMP_hpmax %2
#var RDMP_sp %3
#var RDMP_spmax %4
#var RDMP_ep %5
#var RDMP_epmax %6
#var RDMP_hunger %7

This part works just fine. Today I was playing around with adding hook functionality to zMUD. I'm using a call_hooks alias that retrieves a list of aliases for a supplied hook id from a db variable and then executes each one of them with the supplied arguments.

I added the line '#if %class( Hooks) {#exec call_hooks heartbeat %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7}' just after the #gag in the trigger above and set up one hook with the 'heartbeat' id, which just does a small amount of data-crunching. The problem is that when I enable the Hooks class, the gagging behavior changes. Before, I would very occasionally see a quick blip on the screen as zMUD wrote the RDMP line and then immediately erased it. Now, I actually see all the text in the window shift up one line and then back down, which is very distracting when it happens every three seconds.

So my first question is: why does this change even though the #gag is still the first thing the trigger does, and how can I fix it?

And my second question is: is there a better way to use hooks in zmud that I'm not aware of?

SubAdmin Joined: 18 Nov 2001 Posts: 5182

Your right, the addition of the 'data crunching code' is what causes the delay in gagging. When a #GAG command is issued in a trigger zMud flags the line to be gagged. That line does not actually get gagged until all trigger proccessing is completed on it. This allows the #UNGAG command a chance to remove the flag. You can override this behavior with "#GAG 0".

As to your usage of 'hooks' it sounds like you are making things more complex then they need to be. I can not say if there is a better way without knowing what exactly you are doing and what your looking to do.