5.1.5 The .program Command

The .program command is a common way for programmers to associate a particular MOO-code program with a particular verb. It has the following syntax:

.program object:verb ...lines of MOO code... .

That is, after typing the .program command, then all lines of input from the player are considered to be a part of the MOO program being defined. This ends as soon as the player types a line containing only a dot (`.'). When that line is received, the accumulated MOO program is checked for proper MOO syntax and, if correct, associated with the named verb.

Fine point: The lines are entered verbatim; no "dot-unquoting" is performed. That is, the translation often performed in other similar contexts (e.g., LambdaCore's $prog:@program verb or other LambdaCore commands that make use of $command_utils:read_lines()) in which a line beginning with two dots (`..') will have the first dot stripped before being included, does not occur here.

If, at the time the line containing only a dot is processed, (a) the player is not a programmer, (b) the player does not have write permission on the named verb, or (c) the property $server_options.protect_set_verb_code exists and has a true value and the player is not a wizard, then an error message is printed and the named verb's program is not changed.

In the .program command, object may have one of three forms:

• The name of some object visible to the player. This is exactly like the kind of matching done by the server for the direct and indirect objects of ordinary commands. See the chapter on command parsing for details. Note that the special names `me' and `here' may be used.

• An object number, in the form #number.

• A system property (that is, a property on #0), in the form $name. In this case, the current value of #0.name must be a valid object.