Text consists of a string of characters enclosed in double quotes. To place a quote inside a string, escape it with a backslash “ character. You will also need to escape a backslash if you want to use one on purpose.
usr << "He said, \"Hi.\""This example sends some text to the usr: He said, "Hi."
Backslashes are also used for special macros and to escape other characters that would normally be hard to include in a string. A backslash at the end of a line will ignore the line break, and continue the string on the next line after ignoring any leading spaces.
To insert a variable expression into a string, enclose it in brackets []. These are referred to as embedded text expressions. An object expression will display the object’s name preceded by the text macro the or The if no other article has been specified. Capitalization of the article is inferred from context.
mob/verb/shout(T as text)
world << "[usr]: [T]"If this example is called by a mob named “Bill” with the text “hi everybody!”, it will display “Bill: hi everybody!“.
On the other hand, if it is called by a mob named “cat”, it would display “The cat: hi everybody!“.
Via operator overloading you can define an operator"" proc for an object to return different text when it’s embedded in a string.
Document strings
For lengthy text strings, DM provides a special text document syntax. This begins with {" and ends with "}. It may include multiple lines and even un-escaped double quotes, but it still parses escape characters and embedded expressions.
mob/verb/end()
usr << {"
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
--T.S. Eliot "Hollow Men"
"}
del world //the end!Raw strings
DM also has a format for raw strings, which do not allow escape characters or embedded expressions. This can be useful for many situations, especially regular expressions which tend to use characters that need escaping. There are three ways to specify a raw string. All of them begin with the @ character.
Simple raw strings follow @ with a single-character delimiter, usually " but it can be almost anything, and end when that delimiter is seen again. Line breaks are not allowed in simple raw strings.
Examples:
world << @"I can say \ or [] without escaping anything!"
world << @#Here I can use "quotes" but not the pound sign.#
var/regex/R = new(@/(\d+)/)
// without raw strings
world << "I can say \\ or \[] without escaping anything!" // lying
world << "I have to escape \"quotes\" to use them."
var/regex/R = new("(\\d+)")Complex raw strings use more complicated delimiters, but they let you include line breaks. There are two ways to do this: One starts with @{" and ends with "}, so it looks like the familiar document string format. The other way starts with @(XYZ), where XYZ is any arbitrary text you want it to be, and ends when that same text is encountered.
With a complex raw string, a single leading and/or trailing line break will be ignored.
Examples:
world << @{"
Now I have absolute freedom to use "quotes"
or [brackets] or line breaks, as long as I
don't follow a quote with a closing brace.
"}
world << @(~~~)
Until three tilde (~) characters are seen, this is a valid string.
~~~ // end of string
world << @(!!)You don't need a line break if you don't want one.!!