ARVOXML

License Agreement

1. The author's name and contact details (John Nickerson (Mokalus of Borg), mokalus@yahoo.com.au) are not removed or hidden.
2. The author accepts no responsibility for any damage that may be caused to your hardware, other software, or wetware, through use of the program.
3. No warranty is given, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, usability or fitness for a particular purpose, except where prohibited by law, and on the planet Neptune ('coz we all know what they're like about warranties).

Executive Summary of License Agreement

Current Version

Using the Program

(The file "Arvoxml.exe" has been compiled from "Arvoxml.py" with "py2exe", available from Starship Python, and requires "python22.dll" to run.)
(The file "Arvoxml.py" requires the Python interpreter, which can be downloaded for free at www.python.org for a variety of platforms.)

The program can be run with either command-line arguments, or user input. The command-line syntax is as follows:

arvoxml [options] Valid options:

• -i[filename]

  Set input file to 'filename'. Prompt if no filename is given on the command line. Note: no spaces between '-i' and filename argument.

• -o[filename]

  Set output file to 'filename'. Same behaviour as '-i' if no argument given. Defaults to "defines.txt".

• -w or -d

  Use Windows/DOS-friendly newlines (CR-LF). (default)

• -u or -l

  Use Unix/Linux newlines (LF).

If no arguments are given on the command line, the program will print a short summary of the command line argument options. If you have problems getting the program to open files, try specifying the path in full.

Further Information/Programs

Source File Format

Scopes

A scope is enclosed by <scope></scope> tags, and is used to define separate sections of the source file, and, by extension, sections of the game. Say, for instance, you have a very short game, with two separate "chapters", and two rooms in each, which each have a couple of variables that are only relevant within that room. You might feed ARVOXML a source file segment like this:

var current_chapter
<scope>
<flag name="night_time" />
<scope>
<flag name="seen_owl" />
</scope>
<scope>
<flag name="tripped" />
</scope>
</scope>
<scope>br /> <var name="mushrooms_found" />
<scope>
<flag name="caught_moth" />
</scope>
<scope>
<var name="glow_worms" />
</scope>
</scope>

This would result in both "seen_owl" and "tripped" to be assigned to the same machine-level flag, because the independent scopes indicate that the use of these two flags never overlaps.

Declarations

A declaration is what tells the program that a variable, flag or numerical constant should have a definition in the output file. It's very simple.
To define a variable: <var name="my_var" />
To define a flag: <flag name="my_flag" />
To define a numerical constant: <const name="my_const" value="0" /> (where '0' can be replaced by any integer)

Manually Setting Variable/Flag Numbers

You can manually set the current variable or flag number with a "setvar" or "setflag" command in the source file. For example, <setvar value="35" /> will make the next variable in the current or contained scope v35. Similarly, <setflag value="42" /> will make the next flag f42.

Copy Sections and Comments

Text that appears anywhere else in the source file will be copied, verbatim, to the output file. Use a double forward-slash '//' to mark line comments.

Known Issues

1. There are currently no known bugs or problems.

Bug Reporting

To report a bug, please email me at mokalus@yahoo.com.au, with the following format:

Name:
Date:
Program version:
Command line used:
Description of error:
Error message (if any):