Mudlet Targetting Alias and Color trigger.

Valdus

So I've finally decided I'm tired of not having my target highlighted. I'm using a very very simple targeting alias right now which is this.

Pattern: ^tar (.+)$

target = matches[2]
echo("Target is now: " ..target)

What I'd like to know how to do, is have it so that whenever I see the word that I have targetted, whether it's in tells, room descriptions or even the echo on my targeting alias, the letters are red.

I also want to point out that I am as new to LUA and Mudlet coding as you can be, really. Used Zmud and Cmud for years, so if you want me to understand anything, you'll have to explain.

Klendathu

Assuming your variable is target:

function highlightTarget()

	target_low = tempTrigger(target:lower(), [[selectString("]] .. target:lower() .. [[", 1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]])
	target_high = tempTrigger((target:lower()):title(), [[selectString("]] .. (target:lower()):title() .. [[", 1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]])

end

Valdus

Do I like, just paste that in below the echo part in the targeting alias?

Klendathu

You can either paste it in as a separate function and call it in your target alias, or you can take the two lines starting target_ and paste them into your existing alias.

Valdus

I did the second. It works great. Thank you very much for your help.

Eld

Looks to me like you might want to add a couple lines to kill any previously existing triggers first,

if target_high then killTrigger(target_high) end

and similar for target_low, so you'll stop highlighting your old target when you switch.

Antonius

That will also only match the first occurrence of the name on a line, which is generally sufficient. Might be a few odd cases where it's not, but probably not enough to be worth worrying about.

Eld

Antonius said:

That will also only match the first occurrence of the name on a line, which is generally sufficient. Might be a few odd cases where it's not, but probably not enough to be worth worrying about.

Right, and won't check for full words, so it'll highlight the "man" in "human" if you target "man" or the "element" in "elemental" if you target Element. Also fixable, but also generally not particularly problematic.

Klendathu said:

Assuming your variable is target:

function highlightTarget()

	target_low = tempTrigger(target:lower(), [[selectString("]] .. target:lower() .. [[", 1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]])
	target_high = tempTrigger((target:lower()):title(), [[selectString("]] .. (target:lower()):title() .. [[", 1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]])

end

FWIW, you don't need the extra parentheses around target:lower() - target:lower():title() works just fine. And in case you or anyone else is interested, you can use string.format to avoid the concatenation operators (..), like

string.format([[selectString(%q,1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]], target:lower()) 

which I find considerably more readable, especially for cases where you want to sub in multiple variables.

Klendathu

so...

 target_low = tempTrigger(target:lower(), string.format([[selectString(%q,1) fg("MediumSpringGreen") resetFormat()]], target:lower()) )

or something else?

Eld

Looks right to me.

Valdus

So.. where do I add the "if target_high then killTrigger(target_high) end" to the modified line Klendathu posted @Eld ?

Just underneath them both? I know I'll have to add a second for target_low as well

Cynlael

Add it above the highlight lines.

target = whatever

killtrigger

highlight

should be the order.

Valdus

target = matches[2]

if target_low then killTrigger(target_low) end

if target_high then killTrigger(target_high) end

target_low = tempTrigger(target:lower(), string.format([[selectString(%q,1) fg("red") resetFormat()]], target:lower()) )

target_high = tempTrigger(target:lower():title(), string.format([[selectString(%q,1) fg("red") resetFormat()]], target:lower():title()) )

echo("Target is now: " ..target)

That's how I've got it set. I'm not noticing any problems, and I've double checked to see if the old targets are still highlighted, and they're not. See anything wrong?

Cynlael

IDK. I use this

ds_tar = matches[2]:title()

output("<LightSkyBlue>Target set to <pink>" .. ds_tar .. "<LightSkyBlue>.")

if target_upper then killTrigger(target_upper) end

target_upper = tempTrigger(ds_tar, [[highlightTarget("]]..ds_tar..[[")]])

if target_lower then killTrigger(target_lower) end

target_lower = tempTrigger(ds_tar:lower(), [[highlightTarget("]]..ds_tar:lower()..[[")]])

Eld

Looks good to me, @Valdus. If it works, it works.

Valdus

Thank you all very much. I appreciate your time and help.