Re: call_function

• Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 10:08:36 PST
• From:
  Michael Brundage <anomaly@u.washington.edu>
• Cc: moo-cows@parc.xerox.com
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• In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960117075841.9791A-100000@simon> from "Rich Connamacher" at Jan 17, 96 08:10:31 am

>><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>>-- Added new built-in function `call_function(FNAME, @ARGS)' where FNAME is
>>    a string naming a built-in function to call and ARGS are the arguments
>>    to pass to it.  This allows you to compute the name of the function to
>>    call and, in particular, allows you to write a call to a built-in
>>    function that may or may not exist in the particular version of the
>>    server you're using.
>><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> 
> How is call_function("notify", player, "SPAM"); any different from 
> eval("notify(player, \"SPAM\");")?  I fail to see how this adds any new 
> functionality to the server, just maybe a slightly more convienent form 
> than eval in some cases.

As the Changlog.txt states, it allows one to compute the name of builtin
functions, or to call non-standard builtin functions in such a way that the
code you write remains portable.

As simplistic examples, you can now have verbs with similar functions can
now handle several different builtin functions at once (before you needed a
separate verb for each builtin)

#0:bf_*
  verb = verb[3..$];
  if(this:trusts(player) && verb in $server_options.protected_builtins)
    return call_function(verb, @args);
  else
    return E_PERM;
  endif

#1234:_grep _egrep
  builtin = (verb == "_egrep") ? "rmatch" | "match";
  ...
  result = call_function(builtin, line_of_code, search_expression, case);
  ...

#5678:insert append
  return call_function("list"+verb, @args);

etc.

You can also create more portable MOO code (since databases containing
nonexistant builtin functions will not even load):

if("chr" in $server_options.list_of_all_builtin_functions_on_this_server)
  return call_function("chr", @args);
else
  player:tell("That function is not supported on this server.");
endif

In general, it lets you do the nice things you can do with ordinary verb names
with builtin functions, which couldn't be done before.

Many thanks, Pavel, for adding this new feature!!

michael

• Re: call_function
• From: Rich Connamacher <phantom@baymoo.sfsu.edu>

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• From: Rich Connamacher <phantom@baymoo.sfsu.edu>

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