Phantasmal Site > DGD > DGD LPC Reference > sprintf in DGD

Implementing the sprintf() Function in DGD

From: dgd at list.imaginary.com (Erwin Harte)
Date: Thu Apr  1 14:35:02 2004
Subject: [DGD] Re: sprintf

On Wed, Mar 31, 2004 at 10:47:13PM +0000, Robert Forshaw wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> has anyone here written an sprintf or similar function for DGD (since it 
> doesn't have one built in) ? If so, would they care to share it?

This was written about 9 years ago by Abigail.  It's written in LPC so
I don't expect major problems getting it to work on a recent DGD
version:

    ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/lpmud/drivers/dgd/lpc/sprintf-1.3.tgz

Cheers,

Erwin.
-- 
Erwin Harte

From: dgd at list.imaginary.com (Michael McKiel)
Date: Thu Apr  1 14:37:01 2004
Subject: [DGD] sprintf

 --- Robert Forshaw wrote: > Hi,
> 
> has anyone here written an sprintf or similar function for DGD (since it 
> doesn't have one built in) ? If so, would they care to share it?
> 

I believe theres one here:
http://www.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/~john/dgd/

As well phantasmal's DGD/external has the same sprintf.tar.gz file.

If I recall all I removed from it to make it work was the:
    inherit "/kernel/lib/strings";

But we soon after removed sprintf since I found almost all I was using it for
could be accomplished with the following code, and didn't see a point in
inheriting 600 lines of sprintf into every single object for almost nothing.

The define is 80 spaces in quotes.

#define SPACE80 "                                                            
                   "

/* Name: align()
 * Desc: similiar to Dworkin's ralign() in the wiztool.
 *       A negative width causes left justify up to -79.    */
nomask string align (mixed num, int width)
{
    string str;

    if ( width > 80 || width < -79 ) return "ILLEGAL Width";

    if ( width >= 0 )
    {
        str = SPACE80 + (string) num;
        return str[strlen(str) - width ..];
    }
    else
    {
        str = (string) num + SPACE80;
        return str[0 .. ( 0 - width -1) ];
    }
}


Zam.

From: dgd at list.imaginary.com (Erwin Harte)
Date: Thu Apr  1 15:28:00 2004
Subject: [DGD] Re: sprintf

On Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 04:14:16PM -0500, Michael McKiel wrote:
[...]
> I think (though I may be in the minority) that one of DGD's few downfalls is
> the lack of understanding in how to go about doing a driver extension. In
> other LPC sources it wouldn't seem to be as much of an undertaking. It would
> seem that if there was a greater comprehension there, you'd find more binary
> option/"addons" than just lpc-code thats frequently LIB dependant.

While the downside of linking in a sprintf() from an outside source is
that you may get different behaviour depending on what platform you're
compiling your driver on with as effect that the mudlib may work on
your main server but may misbehave on a test-copy elsewhere.

Additionally you get all the potential buffer overflows and such for
free while ignoring DGD's sturdy built-in string type.

I'll agree that aside from some samples I haven't seen many people use
DGD's extension interface.  You are aware of its existence, I assume?

>     Beyond that, just that a few of its great features, like LWO's and
> parse_string dont get utilized in the KernelLib so one has to start from
> scratch at getting an understanding of those.

True.  On the other hand you're welcome to ask questions and over time
I've seen several examples float by, including a (now slightly
outdated) grammar for LPC itself, from Dworkin. :)

Cheers,

Erwin.
-- 
Erwin Harte