Compatibility Output

render(<string>, <formats>) converts a string’s markup for something outside the game: a bot, a web page, an SQL column. The formats are ansi, html, noaccents and markup, as in PennMUSH, and ansi requires the Can_Spoof power.

`render()` markup compatibility

A choice.

PennMUSH uses the markup flag to retain whatever the other formats did not handle as internal markup tags.

SharpMUSH accepts markup without changing the result.

Why. SharpMUSH stores markup as layers over text and renders a whole string to one format, rather than leaving unrendered inline tags behind.

> think render(ansi(r,a<b>c),html)
<span style="color: #aa0000">a&lt;b&gt;c</span>
> think render(ansi(r,red),markup)
red

Workaround. Choose the output format needed by the consumer to get a portable string: html for a web page, ansi for a terminal capture, neither for plain text.

`decompose()` writes colour inside colour nested

A choice.

PennMUSH closes the open ansi() call and opens a flat one each time the colour changes, so colour inside colour comes back side by side, each call carrying the combined codes.

SharpMUSH writes it the way it was made, one call inside the other. Escapes, the space rule, %r/%t and the code letters are PennMUSH’s.

Why. PennMUSH’s markup is a flat stream of open and close codes, so flat is all it can write. SharpMUSH keeps markup as layers, and the nested form evaluates to the same string.

> think decompose(ansi(r,a[ansi(g,b)]c))
[ansi(r,a[ansi(g,b)]c)]

PennMUSH: [ansi(r,a)][ansi(g,b)][ansi(r,c)]. Example: parity case dc.nesting.

Workaround. Code that evaluates decompose()’s result, which is what it is for, gets the same string on both. Only code that compares the text of two decompose() results needs the colours not to nest.

`decompose()` writes tags and links as the calls that make them

A choice.

PennMUSH writes a tag as [tag(<name>)] before the text and [endtag(<name>)] after it.

SharpMUSH writes [tagwrap(<name>[,<attributes>],<text>)], a command link as [cmdlink(<text>,<command>[,<hint>])], and an address link as [tagwrap(a,href="<address>",<text>)].

Why. A tag here is a layer over the text it covers, so it has no half-open form: tag() and endtag() answer that tagwrap() is the way, and decompose() writes the calls that do rebuild the string.

> think decompose(tagwrap(b,bold))
[tagwrap(b,bold)]

PennMUSH: [tag(b)]bold[endtag(b)]. Example: parity case dc.markup.

Workaround. Evaluate decompose()’s result on the game that wrote it. Code that moves decomposed tags between the two servers has to rewrite one form into the other.

Compatibility Output