Help -- First real working script that does something a teensy bit useful.

Posted by BobTheGreat on Sat 16 Apr 2011 07:55 PM — 8 posts, 31,547 views.

BobTheGreat Sat 16 Apr 2011 07:55 PM #0

So, my script is very simple. It's only 4 lines.


function test_send (name, line, wildcards)
	note "Sending to "..%1
	SendNoEcho("greet "..%1)
end -- function

I compile it and use the a trigger to match


^ * tells you 'sup'$

amd I get this error:


Compile error
World: Aardwolf
Immediate execution
[string "Script file"]:2: unexpected symbol near '..'
Error context in script:
   1 : function test_send (name, line, wildcards)
   2*:  note "Sending to "..%1
   3 :  SendNoEcho("greet "..%1)
   4 : end -- function

Can someone help? I would greatly appreciate all help, and I am a newbie to scripting so I'm probably doing something so wrong its funny to you :)

Twisol USA Sat 16 Apr 2011 08:09 PM #1

Four things:

1. Note is capitalized. Variables in Lua are case-sensitive.
2. Functions need () around their arguments. The only exceptions are when you're passing a table or a string, and it has to be the only argument.
3. %1 isn't part of the Lua syntax, it's something the trigger (and alias) dialog does. You want to use wildcards[1] (the wildcards table is passed as a parameter to your script function)
[EDIT]: 4. You're mixing normal patterns with regular expressions. Change the * to a (.*?) and make sure 'Regular expression' is checked, or remove the ^ and $ (and the spaces next to them, I assume) and make sure 'Regular expression' is unchecked.

BobTheGreat Sat 16 Apr 2011 10:40 PM #2

Thanks a lot! I really don't understand lua fully and I do have a background in programming. I did exactly what you said with the Regular Expression but that didn't seem to work so I used normal patterns.

Twisol said:

Four things:
2. Functions need () around their arguments. The only exceptions are when you're passing a table or a string, and it has to be the only argument.
3. %1 isn't part of the Lua syntax, it's something the trigger (and alias) dialog does. You want to use wildcards[1] (the wildcards table is passed as a parameter to your script function)

That's what I didn't know and again, thanks for the clearing up :)

Twisol USA Sat 16 Apr 2011 10:41 PM #3

Glad to help!

BobTheGreat said:
I did exactly what you said with the Regular Expression but that didn't seem to work so I used normal patterns.

Ah, it was probably the space after the ^. If you had removed that too it probably would have worked.

BobTheGreat Sat 16 Apr 2011 10:49 PM #4

Hmmm... I'm a little bit confused. Now I get an error:


Compile error
World: Aardwolf
Immediate execution
[string "Script file"]:1: ')' expected near '['
Error context in script:
   1*: function test_send (name,line,wildcards[1])
   2 :  Note "Sending to "..%1
   3 :  SendNoEcho("greet "..%1)
   4 : end -- function

Was I supposed to pass that as the only argument? Was I supposed to use the [1]? I capitalized the Note() this time and it works.

And, what does this mean?


[string "Script file"]:1: ')' expected near '['

That I don't need ()'s?

Thanks,
Bob :-P

Twisol USA Sat 16 Apr 2011 10:56 PM #5

We're hitting the language barrier now. :) You should go read Programming in Lua [1] first, so you can learn Lua's syntax and how it works. Here's the corrected version of your code though:

function test_send(name, line, wildcards)
  Note("Sending to " .. wildcards[1])
  SendNoEcho("greet " .. wildcards[1])
end

[1] http://www.lua.org/pil/

Nick Gammon Australia Forum Administrator Sat 16 Apr 2011 10:56 PM #6

What Twisol was trying to explain was change:


function test_send (name,line,wildcards[1])
  Note "Sending to "..%1
  SendNoEcho("greet "..%1)
end -- function

to:


function test_send (name,line,wildcards)
  Note ("Sending to ".. wildcards[1])
  SendNoEcho ("greet ".. wildcards[1])
end -- function

Or, more readably:


function test_send (name,line,wildcards)
local who = wildcards[1]

  Note ("Sending to " .. who)
  SendNoEcho ("greet " .. who)
end -- function

[EDIT] Ninja'd! Not surprised. ;)

BobTheGreat Sat 16 Apr 2011 11:03 PM #7

Thanks Nick and Twisol!! I really appreciate the tiome and help :)