How-to: write a mIRC games scores file.

I dealt with a lot to get such things to work well, and I highly recommend the way I did my scores to anybody. Which is to say tokenized strings in a flatfile to be accessed with a /filter command. Unless mIRC at somepoint gets mySQL this will be the best way to do things. A well placed filter command can pretty much access anything and in a fast enough time frame for a game. And it scales well enough to use.

In Tat's Trivia you can see the var commands. Namely setvar, readvar, getvar, gttok, tvartoks. These each do specific things.

Below the fold is a rather long breakdown of everything about how this stuff works. And why you should use this method.




setvar will set a variable name it's typically called in the format:
setvar

readvar will read a variables name. It is guaranteed to be read from disk. And not cached.

getvar will get the variable names. It could be cashed or read, but it'll just get you the variable you request.




gttok will find the specific number of the token requested as plain text.


tvartoks is a period delimited list of variables being looked up.

It's usually called $getvar($nick,variable)

-- The caching scheme I used did a significant benefit when I wrote it, but presented might do nothing. I remember seeing that in the change log it said something along the lines of doing a cache scheme like that in mIRC itself. So it might be a lot of extra work for nothing. In any event, I'll break down my code for interested parties.

alias setvar {

if ($3 == $null) return

Verify that there is a value you're setting.
 

if ($exists($tempfil)) var %backburner = $read($tempfil, wnt, $1 $+ ;*) ;

Check if there is a backburner entry for that individual and remember it if there is. Since the scores are not cleared in any routine method everybody who uses it should be remembered forever, but since most of them won't be back there's a few hidden commands that send files to a backburner file. This file is checked in case that person has returned. And their scores are treated as if they were never out of the main file. This is more to drop non-return individuals from the scores list than for the sake of speed, since it'll check both files anyway.

if (%backburner != $null) mergeentry $tempfil $scoresfil $1

If it properly read that entry and it exists, then run the merge entry alias between the $tempfile (backburner) and the main (scoresfile) for the nick.

var %newline = $readvar($1)

Read the line we'll be modifying from the disk.

if (!%newline) { %newline = $1 }

If reading it from the disk came up with a blank line. We start our entry from scratch with just the name.

  if ($numtok(%newline,59) < $numtok($tvartoks, $asc(.))) {

If the number of tokens in this new line using the token character 59 which in asc is SEMICOLON ( ; ). is less than the number of tokens delimited by a period in the tvartoks alias. So if there are fewer tokens in the line of the score file than there are tokens in the trivia variable tokens alias, do these commands.

    %newline = %newline $+ $str(;0,$calc($numtok($tvartoks, $asc(.)) - $numtok(%newline,59)))

Add to the %newline variable enough copies of  ";0" to make up the difference in tokens between these two things.

    if ($gettok(%newline,9,59) == 0) { %newline = $puttok(%newline,trivia,9,59) }

If entry number 9 is 0, make that particular token say "trivia". Entry 9 in that list is apparently "team". I'm not sure why I do that.

    if (($gettok(%newline,8,59) == 0) && ($address($1,5))) { %newline = $puttok(%newline,$address($1,5),8,59) }

If entry 8, which is "address" is 0. Which means it was just added. Then it should be replaced with the known address for the nick $1, with appropriate wildcards.

    if ($gettok(%newline,6,59) == 0) { %newline = $puttok(%newline,$date,6,59) }

If entry 6, which is "lastwin" is 0. Then insert today's date.

    if ($gettok(%newline,3,59) == 0) { %newline = $puttok(%newline,9999,3,59) }

If entry 3, which is "time" and more properly the record time it took to answer. Replace that badboy with 9999. The point here is that if you had a zero there, then you could never best that time. 9999 is a stand-in for infinitely long.

  }

And we're done with these we had to make some blank parts of the score line section.

  %newline = $puttok(%newline,$3-,$gttok($2),59)

And now replace the part of the %newline variable with whatever the new values are, and add that to the entry of that token translated from plain text. So "/setvar Tat score 3" would put the variable "3" into entry 2 (which is determined by looking it up in the token list). The 59 is again the ascii number of the delimiter I use namely SEMICOLON " ; ".

  write $iif($readn,-l $+ $readn) $scoresfil %newline

Write the variable %newline to the scoresfil. If my last read command was successful namely the $readvar I did above. Then overwrite that line with the flag -l.

  set -u3 %cache.nick $1

Set for three seconds a variable %cache.nick storing the name $1.

  set -u3 %cache.line %newline

Set for three seconds a variable %cache.line storing the line I spent all that time building and/or editing.

}


alias readvar {

Readvar will always read the entry from disk. It won't build anything. It will read it. If it doesn't read it. Tough nookies.

  if ($exists($scoresfil)) var %scoreline = $read($scoresfil, wnt, $1 $+ ;*)

If there's a scoresfil then read a through it looking for something in the format ; and make that scoreline.

  if (!%scoreline) { return }

If I don't have a scoreline that actually exists, invoke tough nookies and return.

  if (!$2) { return %scoreline }

If I didn't ask for anything specific. Return the entire scores line. "/readvar Tat" will give the entire line.

  else { return $gettok(%scoreline, $gttok($2), 59) }

If I did ask for something. Then find out which entry I asked for (converted from plain text), delimited by character 59 which is a SEMICOLON, and just return that bit.

}


alias getvar {

Get var will return a variable. It will not necessarily read it from disk.

  if ($1 == %cache.nick) { var %scoreline = %cache.line }

If I asked for a variable dealing with the cached nick. then just used the cached line.

  else {

If I didn't cache things...

    var %scoreline = $readvar($1)

Get the scoresline by reading the entire line from disk.

    if (!%scoreline) { return }

If I don't have anything abort..

    set -u3 %cache.nick $1
    set -u3 %cache.line %scoreline

If I have something, go ahead and set that cache myself.

  }

Anyway it went I now have a data filled %scoreline

  if (!$2) { return %scoreline }

If I didn't ask for anything specific, return that entire line.

  else { return $gettok(%scoreline, $gttok($2), 59) }

If I did, return that specific part I asked for.

}

alias -l gttok { return $findtok($tvartoks, $1, 1, $asc(.)) }

Find the token in the tokenstring $tvartoks which says " $1 ". Give me the first one and use the delimit character of an ascii PERIOD. Which will always resolve to a 46. I somewhat inconsistently tell it to convert that . from ascii rather than say 46 and don't say $asc(;) for all my 59s.

alias -l tvartoks { return name.score.time.streak.wpm.lastwin.answered.address.team.admin.block.day.dayscore.daystreak.daytime.daywpm.week.weekscore.weekstreak.weektime.weekwpm.month.monthscore.monthstreak.monthtime.monthwpm.year.yearscore.yearstreak.yeartime.yearwpm }

Here's the list of all the trivia variable tokens. For each entry there will be an entry in the scores file. Every line will be able to tell you any of these data points and the lookup time will be rather static. If for whatever reason the scores file has to be expanded the new information can be tagged on to the end. Since the script checks to see if the number of tokens here matches the number of tokens used in the particular score information. It will automatically make that into a zero and treat it all normal like. So if the file needs to be expanded my code will pretend it has that data and that it's a "0" which is what happened when it added all those ";0" to make up the differences in the tokens.




Okay, how about a simplified version?

alias scoresfil { return myscores.txt }

alias setvar {
  if ($3 == $null) return
 var %newline = $read($scoresfil, wnt, $1 $+ ;*)
  if (!%newline) {
    %newline = $1 $+ $str(;0, $calc($numtok($tvartoks, $asc(.)) - 1))
  }
  %newline = $puttok(%newline,$3-,$gttok($2),59)
  write $iif($readn,-l $+ $readn) $scoresfil %newline
}

alias getvar {
    var %scoreline = $readvar($1)
    if (!%scoreline) { return }
    if (!$2) { return %scoreline }
    else { return $gettok(%scoreline, $gttok($2), 59) }
}
alias -l gttok { return $findtok($tvartoks, $1, 1, $asc(.)) }
alias -l tvartoks { return name.score.bet.dataiwant,dataiwant2.ban.blah.blah2 }

The idea is basically some variation of this. You store a tokenized string of what you're storing and a flatfile of tokenized datapoints. that you read with a $read command and use $gettok, $puttok, and $findtok to slice and dice. The end result is a pretty easy to use scores setup. -- Also, my trivia script is public domain so you can just look it up and grab it. Make your own checks in the setvar for what default settings for whichever entries, and make tvartoks have the data you want to use and you can use it out of the box for things like "$getvar(Tat,score)" and "/setvar Tat score 5" and it really should work.


There are other benefits to this scheme that come with the use of filter. It's entirely possible to just extract my /sort command too and it'll let you do high score tables based on any statistic you want pretty much out of the box.


alias -l twin { return @trivia $+ $scoresfil }


alias sort {
  if (!$exists($scoresfil)) { return }
  window -h $twin
  filter -fwcgut $+ $iif($1 != time,e) [ $$gttok($iif($2 != total,$2) $+ $1) $asc(;) ] $scoresfil $twin $iif(($2) && ($2 != total),/^ $+ $str([^;]*;,$calc($$gttok($2)-1)) $+ $eval($ $+ get. $+ $2,2) $+ ;.* $+ /,/.*/)
}

It makes a hidden window $twin (Trivia Window), and filters everything out of the scoresfil into that window in a sorted manner.  So /sort score week will put those bits together to find scoreweek entry. As I personally store the all time, week scores, month scores, and year scores. This is all I really bothered to sort by, but really any point of data is doable. If I was to do it over I would rewrite that alias to be much more dynamic.




The core of the sorting code is a filter command with the flags -fwcgut or from File, to Window, Clear destination, using reGex, and a nUmeric sort, sorted by [c r] ouTput.


So I'm moving the stuff from the scoresfile to the hidden window I made, clearing that window out, and sorting the entries numerically based on the column and the character I used. This column character thing is just tokenized strings again! Which is why this is so preferred. There's a lot of built in stuff with tokenized strings.

If it's asking for time, it tosses an "e" flag in there which says to invErt the sort. I want lowest times on top in that special case. The $iif command saves you a lot of if statements but destroys the readability of the code. But that $+ $iif($2 == time, e) just says append an "e" to that set of flags if my second passed variable is time.

The $gttok is the column (entry) for that particular data point, and $gttok just takes it from plain text to the number. It saves you a ton with readability and simplicity. You just ask for the score of $nick, or $getvar($nick,score) and you're done. 

If I asked for "Time Total" it will run $gttok on time (dropping the "total"). And since these bits of data are delimited by SEMICOLON (59) it'll use that as the S entry. It filters between the $scoresfil and $twin (trivia window) and builds the regular expression from there.

/filter -fwcut [ $gttok($1) 59 ] $scoresfil $twin *
More simply, that should basically work.

 Most of that code was before I used the direct tokenize code. Using the -t flag, most of that code to build a rather complex regex is obsolete. And a lot of it is spent making it compatible with the older way I did it. If I just used the correct name from the get go, it would have been much simpler.Hence why I can say with some confidence that the above code there is going to be easier. And had I done it that way any other people could have just directly used my sorting code there.


"/sort score"

Would move all the data to the window sorted by score. Then you just access the lines in the window and find out who has the best score and the second best score, etc. And since filter is an internal command it ends up going faster than any code one could otherwise script. Even if you just wanted the person with the top score, that filter to sort the entire list is going to be faster than just scanning the list once and comparing each score. Because each step would need to run the interpreted code you wrote. -- This is also the exception to the speed issue with the $tempfile or backburner.txt. Since this sorting scales at a time complexity of N*Ln(N) you can get slower speeds sorting massive lists than if you just pulled out those never really going to be used entries. If they have 4 points, and they haven't had a win in the last 4 months (my script saved the lastwin date data), they aren't worth adding to the sort you're doing here.

--



I could like extol the virtues of this way of doing a score file in mIRC script, for a good while longer. But, almost needless to say, this is the best way to do it. You can just pilfer my code directly for a lot of it. And use the tvartoks list to call your bits of data something else. A quick tweak or two to sort and you can use that too.

And if you do that tweak you can then use the $hof command,

alias -l hof.size { return $line($twin,0) }
alias -l hof { return $gettok($line($twin,$1),$2,59) }

Which quickly lets one ask for whatever bit they want from the sorted data. $hof(1,1) for name of the person in first place for example. Or use $gttok($2) rather than $2 for things like $hof(1,name) etc.



The $hof code predates the $gttok so I didn't bother to rewrite it all. But, if doing it yourself from scratch without all the legacy code my script has:
alias -l hof { return $gettok($line($twin,$1),$gttok($2),59) }

Is a much better command. Then it's simply $hof(,score) or whatever exact bit you want.


---


This is generally how you want your scores files to work. I tried other ways and this is by far the best. It's generally limitless scales really well. And mIRC has a lot of built in stuff for tokenized strings. You end up getting a lot of storage density for a small handful of commands that can be rather easily reused and accessed throughout your script.