User:Bayo/Clean up scripts

Idea is to clean up some part of the script. As a result, we can use an only one grammar for all our main scripts (ATM we only use the same tokenizer). It also can help later to convert script to XML if we decide to.

Problem with lists

Some part of the script use list inside blocks. It makes problems if we considere blocks a set of name-value (cause most of our script consider that).

For examples team_humans.ufo, music.ufo... and many more

	names {
		female {
			Aakriti
			Abeba
			Adina
			Afra
			Afua
		}
	}

We can introduce a new keyword for lists. For example:

	names {
		female [
			"Aakriti"
			"Abeba"
			"Adina"
			"Afra"
			"Afua"
		]
	}

Or still use the "default" way. For example:

	names {
		female {
			name "Aakriti"
			name "Abeba"
			name "Adina"
			name "Afra"
			name "Afua"
		}
	}

Or another way?

Problem with element containing more than one value

Some part of the script a property is defined by a name and many values in a list way.

research.ufo (request_OR alien), or components.ufo are good examples.

components craft_ufo_scout {
	time	300
	item	alienmaterials			300	%
	item	antimatter				200	0
	item	craft_alien_propulsion	2	%
	item	craft_alien_astrogation	1	%
	item	craft_alien_detection	1	%
}

We can rework it in a "default" way (BTW i dont introduce "random" names, i dont know all this things mean):

components craft_ufo_scout {
	time	300
	item {
		type alienmaterials
		value 300
		unit "%"
	}
	item	{ type antimatter		amount	200	unit "0" }
	item	{ type craft_alien_propulsion	amount 2	unit "%" }
	item	{ type craft_alien_astrogation	amount 1	unit "%" }
	item	{ type craft_alien_detection	amount 1	unit "%" }
}

Embedded languages

Some of our script embed sub languages. For example the particule system contain a very special language, and the sequence script too. It is not the same language and i dont think it is nice to parse it with the same code.

Other languages like XML use escaping <![CDATA[ ... ]]>. Battle for Wesnoth, witch embed Lua scripts inside there own script language use << ... >>. We should use a marker like that, to avoid our default parser to parse our sub languages.

It can looks like something like that:

particle explosionGrenExpl
{
	init {<<
		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke2

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke3
	>>}
}

Or Python use that kind of syntax for multiline strings, it can works too, and became usefull if we merge english .po file to our scripts:

particle explosionGrenExpl
{
	init """
		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke2

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke3
	"""
}

BTW this way bellow can do the trick with Eclipse, and we dont need to fix the game parser, then maybe it is the better idea for a fast fix relative to Eclipse.

particle explosionGrenExpl
{
	init {//
		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke2

		push   int 18
		nspawn explosionSmoke3
	}//
}

V_RELABS

As a side comment. While we are reworking script, I think the way this type is implemented is quite strange and dangerous. We should rework the parsing code and the way we store the value in the game code.

And at least quote the values on scripts. Or we can introduce some units (that's more something relative to Eclipse) the "%" as part of the language.

BTW the components use something which looks like that too. Maybe we can merge some code.

components craft_ufo_scout {
	time	300
	item	alienmaterials			300	%
	item	antimatter				200	0

Maybe "300 %" means relative, and "200 0" means absolute. But i am not sure about it.