Nickr5's site

Number Quiz Answer

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:01:28 +0000

To find the formula, solve the system of equations:
1 = a + b + c + d
7 = 8a + 4b + 2c + d
21 = 27a + 9b + 3c + d
46 = 64a + 16b + 4c + d
And replace a, b, c, and d in the following equation:
y = ax³ + bx² + cx + d

Where y is the xth term in the sequence. I get y = 0.5x³ + x² - 0.5x

(This is in response to Toadfish's riddle.)

An experiment

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 01:00:46 +0000

I've been working on a neat tool lately called DMSquish (.NET 4.0 required). It compresses DM code by removing unnecessary characters. Unlike some similar projects I've seen, it does a pretty good job of not breaking your code in the process (although I haven't tested every single odd syntax DM supports, so it might have trouble if you're doing something strange). Generally it can get rid of about 20% of characters, and up to 50% for files with lots of comments. The idea is to help with contests like the Cartridge Classic (which coincidentally ends today IIRC) and possibly serve as an obfuscator if one ever becomes necessary. There's still room for improvement - I'd especially like to add support for parsing dme files to automatically compress a project - but give it a try and comment if you have any problems!

HTTP Post with DM

Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:24:22 +0000

I've released a few new libraries lately. The newest of these is n_cURL, which is a small wrapper around cURL. Most notably, this means BYOND developers are no longer stuck with world.Export's GET-only limitation.

The main caveat is that games using this library must be trusted. This could be fixed to some degree by using call() in combination with libcurl instead of shell(), but I don't plan on doing that any time soon.

Remote Procedure Calls

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:28:58 +0000

n_RPC is a small library that makes communicating between servers easy. It uses world/Export and world/Topic to let you call procs on other servers with a /connection object:

var/connection/server = new("byond://127.0.0.1:9999")
server.Call("say", "Hello, world!")

It also uses a hash (MD5 for now) to prevent anyone else's server from interacting with yours.

Go take a look at the demo!

Pixel-Perfect Collisions

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 23:54:31 +0000

I just put a proof of concept demo for performing pixel-perfect collision detection onto the hub. I explained how it works in this thread and will get the source up soon!

Edit 2/8: I just found this on Google Code. If you're interested in pixel collision, take a look at it. Anyone know who Albinoamsel is on BYOND?

n_Scripting Update

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:42:17 +0000

I have updated my scripting library (for the first time in almost a year!) with a fix to a fairly major bug involving recursion I found a long time ago and was reminded of recently by Toadfish. There are still some features I'd like to add and some parts could probably be designed or written better, but I'm not aware of any other bugs. So with this update it should be plenty ready to use in your project - check it out if you haven't already!

For those of you that haven't heard of n_Scripting before, it supports two languages (both of which can be added to) out of the box and can be extended to support others. See the hub for examples and the original announcement for more information. Also, documentation is included.

Maybe this means I should start working on Automata again... If only it were possible to get syntax highlighting working in BYOND...

Featured Resources

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:12:35 +0000

Are featured libraries being chosen manually? It's strange that a library like this has been featured (or even listed, really) when it says right on the hub, 'Not for public use.' There are a couple other featured resources of questionable quality I've seen so far, even some that have better alternatives available.

Introducing n_Log

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:32:32 +0000

After reading this thread on the forums, I decided to come up with an easy way to write logs and keep track of entries in them. The result is my new n_Log library. The library (by default) writes to an XML file which can then be viewed, sorted, and filtered by the included log viewer application. I'm planning to write a more comprehensive article for Dream Makers some time soon, but for now take a look at the documentation. Feedback is greatly appreciated!

It's licensed under the MIT License.

Edit: Here are some screenshots of the log viewer.

Some interface suggestions

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:57:59 +0000

I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but right now you can only select text in an input control using the mouse, even with the directional macros removed. In most text boxes, you can select text by holding the shift key and then pressing one of the arrow keys. Would this be possible to add for BYOND skins?

Also, input controls are annoying in how they handle double quotes. Right now, the best option (other than maybe using client/Command or browser interfaces) for input controls that execute one specific verb is to set the input's command property to something like say . The problem with this is that if the player hits the space bar right away, then a double quote appears at the start of the text box instead of a space. If the first character typed is a double quote, then if another double quote ever appears, then spaces typed by the user are filtered out by BYOND and when they hit enter, the say verb won't be called but instead be replaced by a 'Sorry, the following is not valid' error. Setting the control's command parameter to say " will fix the first problem, but cause any double quotes with at all with text after them to trigger an error. Finally, using the no-command property might fix this entirely, but then the user can't hit enter to submit the text (if a macro has been set for the enter key, it isn't run when an input control has focus).

One more request: could Click() and DblClick() be called for a couple controls other than maps, grids, and statpanels? Specifically, it would be nice to be able to close a tab when the user middle clicks it.

JSON Page Format

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:58:32 +0000

BYOND's savefile format is nice for retrieving information from within BYOND games, but a more standard format would be helpful to do this from within other applications or websites. Thus, it would be nice if the website provided a format=json option in addition to format=text.