OKScript Status Report #19

June 28, 2002

Dear OKScript User,

The OKScript Status Report is sent to OKScript 
licensees, developers and friends when significant 
updates have been made to the program. Interesting 
techniques and applications for the program will 
also be distributed in the report periodically. To
update or be removed from the distribution list 
please see the links at the bottom of this message 
or write me at yweare@gte.net.

This issue explores the use of some of OKScript's
more advanced features to create a button panel 
that issues customized requests for players to the
OKbridge lobby. The technique could be easily
adapted to other bridge services.


SCRIPTING FOR CUSTOMIZED LOBBY CALLS

It's helpful for readers of your player request
to the lobby to know a few things about your table.
I like to include these details when I issue an
ad to the lobby:

- scoring type (IMPs or MPs)
- number of players
- player level (intermediate or advanced)
- minimum Lehman level
- when (now or after this hand)

To dedicate a button to each reasonable combination
of these would require an unacceptably large panel.
An alternative approach is to have buttons that 
select a value for each criterion and a button
that assembles and issues a player request from 
these values.

The button that issues the request might look
something like this:

MACRO plural
MACRO when
MACRO style
MACRO lev
MACRO leh 
BUTTON request BLACK OKbridge 
  PUT &Need friendly player%plural% %when% %style%-%lev%-%leh%{enter}

Buttons to set and clear values in the macros might look
something like this:

- clear all the macros
BUTTON clear RED
  LET plural
  LET when
  LET style
  LET lev
  LET leh

- set the macro for making "player" plural
BUTTON one BLUE 
  LET plural
BUTTON many BLUE
  LET plural s

- set the macro for when you need players
BUTTON now GREEN
  LET when now
BUTTON next GREEN
  LET when after this hand

- set the macro to announce scoring style
BUTTON MPs PURPLE
  LET style MPs
BUTTON IMPs PURPLE
  LET style IMPs

- set the macro for desired player level
BUTTON int RED
  LET lev INT
BUTTON intadv RED
  LET lev INT/ADV
BUTTON adv RED
  LET lev ADV

- set the macro for minimum lehman level
BUTTON 45 PURPLE
  LET leh 45{+}
BUTTON 46 PURPLE
  LET leh 46{+}
BUTTON 47 PURPLE
  LET leh 47{+}
BUTTON 48 PURPLE
  LET leh 48{+}
BUTTON 49 PURPLE
  LET leh 49{+}

Add a few NEWLINEs to format the panel and this 
code performs what we set out to do. A problem
that can come up with such a panel is previewing
and verifying which choices have been selected. 
OKScript's status bar and universal button handler
features make this easy to include. To add a 
status bar to (the top of) a button panel place 
this line of code at the start of your script:

PRAGMA statusbar

To write the user's selections to the status
bar add this code to your script:

DO after left
  MODE status blue %when% player%plural% %style% %lev% %leh%

This DO instruction executes the instructions that
follow (a MODE instruction in this case) whenever 
the normal processing of a left button click is 
completed. This MODE instruction writes the macro
values to the status bar. Note that clicking the 
CLEAR button causes the status bar display to be 
cleared. 

Here is the whole script that you can experiment 
with by selecting it and moving it to OKScript's 
editor via the clipboard. NEWLINEs have been added 
so that the panel is wide enough to preview all 
the selections.

PRAGMA statusbar

DO after left
  MODE status blue %when% player%plural% %style% %lev% %leh%

MACRO plural
MACRO when
MACRO style
MACRO lev
MACRO leh 

- clear all the macros
BUTTON clear RED
  LET plural
  LET when
  LET style
  LET lev
  LET leh

- set the macro for making "player" plural
BUTTON one BLUE 
  LET plural
BUTTON many BLUE
  LET plural s

- set the macro for when you need players
BUTTON now GREEN
  LET when now
BUTTON next GREEN
  LET when after this hand
NEWLINE

- set the macro to announce scoring style
BUTTON MPs PURPLE
  LET style MPs
BUTTON IMPs PURPLE
  LET style IMPs

- set the macro for desired player level
BUTTON int RED
  LET lev INT
BUTTON intadv RED
  LET lev INT/ADV
BUTTON adv RED
  LET lev ADV
NEWLINE

- set the macro for minimum lehman level
BUTTON 45 PURPLE
  LET leh 45{+}
BUTTON 46 PURPLE
  LET leh 46{+}
BUTTON 47 PURPLE
  LET leh 47{+}
BUTTON 48 PURPLE
  LET leh 48{+}
BUTTON 49 PURPLE
  LET leh 49{+}

BUTTON REQUEST BLACK OKbridge 
  PUT &Need friendly player%plural% %when% %style%-%lev%-%leh%{enter}


For more information, or to offer suggestions or 
interesting techniques or applications for OKScript, 
write me at yweare@gte.net, or visit the website at 
http://home1.gte.net/yweare/index.htm

Thank you for supporting the development of OKScript.

Michael Mardesich
okb://mikezzz