This is the runtime search operator. It is used to access a property (var or proc) of a var that is not explicitly prototyped. If the variable doesn’t have the specified variable or proc, a runtime error occurs.
var/M
M = usr
M:name = "futz" // access a mob property from a non-mob varThe . operator behaves the same way, but it checks at compile time whether the property is available. If the var is assigned a value that isn’t the correct type and doesn’t have this property, a runtime error will still occur.
Note
You should prefer the
.operator in most situations, because it’s better to catch a problem in the compiler instead of at runtime.