Mudlet 4.2 - overhauled stopwatches, secure passwords storage, ANSI colours for scripting and more

Vadimuses

This update now stores characters' passwords securely, improves selection (but more work to do there), adds ANSI colours to cecho and friends, and fixes the font spacing in the error console.

We know quality of the last few updates hasn't been amazing, and quality is something we pride ourselves in. We've worked extra hard this time to test everything!

Selection is not yet fixed, but better

Selection in Mudlet has gotten worse in the last few updates - we apologise for that. We're working on fixing that to work as you'd expect, and this update thanks to SlySven and vadi2 brings the following: selecting left to right works better, selecting to the end of line doesn't overselect other text and finally, selecting just one letter is possible.

Improved selection

There are still issues with selection, however: selecting many things up and down doesn't work well for example. We're working on fixing this, look for improvements in future updates.

Remember you can hold Ctrl while selecting to select entire lines at once!

Overhauled stopwatches

SlySven put in a lot of work to improve stopwatches: they can now persist across sessions, be deleted/recreated as needed, adjusted on the fly, be given names and more. See all of the new functions in the API.

While stopwatches worked as expected, their functionality was very limited. Additionally, they worked differently from their real worl counterparts which made their use not very intuitive.

Secure passwords storage

Mudlet previously stored passwords in an unencrypted binary file. While it wasn't a text file, and thus not so easy to look at, it still wasn't ideal. vadi2 fixed this in this update, and integrated the QtKeychain open-source library to enable Mudlet to store passwords securely on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The drawback of storing the password on the computer itself, however, is that if you use cloud sync for your profiles - the password won't the syncronised. You can go to Special Options in settings and change the password to be stored within the profile to make that work, if you'd like the password to be portable but visible in plaintext.

This piece of work was a necessary step towards custom locations for Mudlet profiles - necessary for cloud sync and portable Mudlet, so look for more in this area

You can now also toggle to view the characters password in case you've forgot it thanks to SlySven's improvement.

ANSI colours

SlySven worked to make ANSI colours - ones you see in preferences - be available right in your scripts! This means you can create coloured cechoes (and more) with the exactly same colours you'd see in the game. Nice!

showColors() with the new ansi colors. Use showColors("ansi") to show only the ANSI ones

In the same vein, as you notice from the screenshot that demonnic worked to make showColors() sort colours! It now is a lot easier to pick out the exact colour you'd like.

Dark mode on macOS

Mudlet now automatically goes into Dark Mode if you've got that enabled on your macOS:

Enjoy!

Error console font

The error console font used to be... strange in the last few releases. We apologise for the lapse in quality here, and it is now fixed.

Generic mapping script

We've spent time improving the generic mapping script as well, making it easier to use and understand:

Doing map basic will show the room name and exits that have been captured, so you can tell if the script is working.

Credits

Thanks to all coders: demonnic, keneanung, Leris, Loon-Toon, SlySven, and vadi2 for making this update possible!

Thanks to all translators: 王AQ (Anselmus), Marco "M0lid3us" Tironi (wiploo), Leris, and vadi2 for keeping translations up to date.

Changelog

added:

• Geyser.Gauge:echo() can now do Geyser formatting
• generic mapping script: if you start the first area in your map without a name, the message asking for the name is now more understandable
• added getConnectionInfo() function
• character login passwords can now be stored by Mudlet securely in the credential manager, and are put there by default. There is still a toggle to go back to storing them unencrypted within the profile - this is handy if you want to use cloud sync
• ANSI colours are now available for use in cecho and others! They are automatically synced with preferences. See showColors()

improved:

• setRoomEnv(), Geyser.Gauge:setValue(), table.is_empty() give you an understandable error message if you don't give them right arguments, instead of technical gibberish
• generic mapping script: 'map basic' is now much more simplified and understandable, and tells you if it captured room name and exits correctly
• code editor will now indent with two spaces, and not tabs, when you press Tab (this sounds weird but it's a lot better)
• 'About Makers' is now a lot easier to translate
• generic mapping script: 'clear moves' alias now tells you how many commands were removed
• you can now reveal the character password in the Connection screen by pressing a little icon
• GUI.Client, Client.Map downloads will now follow redirects as necessary
• Mudlet's .dat map files can now be loaded from Client.Map as well
• default font size for new profiles is slightly bigger and looks nicer
• stopwatches got a giant overhaul, tons of new functionality
• showColors() now sorts colours nicely

fixed:

• error and debug console fonts are no longer spaced weird
• grey area between trigger error and trigger patterns is fixed
• you can now select a single letter/character ("grapheme" in technical terms)
• trigger highlights can now highlight non-English text fine

 

 

 

 

Jovolo

When trying to use "goto <area>" with mudlet mapper I am now getting this error after updating: 

object:<Go to ID or area> function:<Alias10> <resetStopWatch: bad argument #1 type (stopwatch id as number or name as string expected, got nil!)>

A few people have commented that their custom prompts disappeared upon updating to 4.2 too. Not a problem I encountered, but both Jarrod and Dominika reported the problem in-game. 

Jovolo

Uninstalling and reinstalling mudlet mapper has solved the above issue for me. 

Kresslack

Missing my prompt now and seem to be getting this message after the latest update.

(svof): Saved system settings.
(svof): Going into empty defs mode so pre-cache doesn't take anything out, and stuffing away all
riftables...
"startStopWatch: bad argument #1 type (stopwatch id as number or name as string expected, got nil!)"

Jovolo

Jovolo said:

Uninstalling and reinstalling mudlet mapper has solved the above issue for me. 

I'm having to do this every time I open mudlet. 

Sobriquet

I've also completely lost my custom prompt, even when resetting it via svof's vconfig2, it still fails. I also have the mapper issue above.

On a second profile it's completely lost all SVOf settings. All vconfig politics colours, all defs, and my prompt. 

I really appreciate the work going into this for free, but please can we have some more testing before updates are released?

Edit - Defups lost on main Sobby profile too...

Vinzent

That sounds more like a problem with svof than Mudlet.

Caelan

I went to comment out some code to test a new variant and the double dash deleted all my triggers.

Luckily, I back up stuff way more than needed.  But in this case just closed Mudlet without saving and restarted.  But then, I use my own and don't sync across profiles or via cloud.

Vika

My mapper wont work even if I reinstall it, the goto function wont work at all. And yeah, my prompt is MIA. I can live without the custom prompt but a hotfix for the mapper would be great :c 

Sobriquet

Vinzent said:

That sounds more like a problem with svof than Mudlet.

Possibly, but all this happened with ths Mudlet update and its not like svof isn't widely used... 

Atalkez

Vinzent said:

That sounds more like a problem with svof than Mudlet.

It’s a Mudlet issue. My timers have quit working unless I manually kill then restart them after opening Mudlet. My mapper also requires reinstallation every new session. I don’t use svo, and I’m even having some issues. Minor compared to others thankfully.

Gilliam

For those having issues with Svof prompt and politics:
Svof adds in ansi colours by default. They're labeled as a_darkgreen a_darkred etc. I can't say for certain, but try checking the colours on your prompt tags and whatever else and changing them from a_ to ansi_. Don't see how this would effect defups or settings in any way, that does sound like a svof thing not a mudlet thing, but it could potentially be throwing things like prompt and echoes off as I know svof uses its a_colours pretty extensively.

[Deleted User]

Gilliam said:

For those having issues with Svof prompt and politics:
Svof adds in ansi colours by default. They're labeled as a_darkgreen a_darkred etc. I can't say for certain, but try checking the colours on your prompt tags and whatever else and changing them from a_ to ansi_. Don't see how this would effect defups or settings in any way, that does sound like a svof thing not a mudlet thing, but it could potentially be throwing things like prompt and echoes off as I know svof uses its a_colours pretty extensively.

This wouldn't fix it, systems generally recreate the colour table (it's stored under the color_table variable) or add to Mudlet's native one.

Seems more like it's due to lost variables on SVO's side, than a mudlet thing. But nobody's posting error logs, so.

Antonius

Svo uses stopwatches, no? The latest Mudlet update apparently fucked up stopwatches. Seems likely the two are related.

Sobriquet

The prompt issue happens at log in or if you QQ and re-login but haven't shut down Mudlet. With the latter it will not allow you to set a custom prompt without restarting the client.

Kresslack

Issues seem to be fixed on my end. Thanks for the quick fix!

Vinzent

It would appear the mapper issue is related to a single line of code not initializing in the 'Load settings' script:

function speedWalkWatchFunction()<br>  speedWalkWatch = createStopWatch()<br>end<br>speedWalkWatchFunctionHandler = registerAnonymousEventHandler("sysLoadEvent", "speedWalkWatchFunction")</code>speedWalkWatch = createStopWatch()</pre><br><br>This is fixed by changing that line to:<br><div><pre class="CodeBlock"><code>