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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE html><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>3.2. Interacting with the MUD</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="docbook.css"/><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="kildclient.css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1"/><link rel="prev" href="sec_world-selector.xhtml" title="3.1. Connecting to a MUD"/><link rel="next" href="sec_closing_worlds.xhtml" title="3.3. Closing Worlds and Exiting KildClient"/></head><body><header><div class="navheader"><table style="width: 100%; "><tr><th style="text-align: center; " colspan="3">3.2. Interacting with the MUD</th></tr><tr><td style="width: 20%; text-align: left; "><a accesskey="p" href="sec_world-selector.xhtml">Prev</a> </td><th style="width: 60%; text-align: center; ">Chapter 3. Basic Usage</th><td style="width: 20%; text-align: right; "> <a accesskey="n" href="sec_closing_worlds.xhtml">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div></header><section class="sect1" id="sec_interacting"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">3.2. Interacting with the MUD</h2></div></div></div><p>The figure below shows a typical KildClient session:</p><div class="figure" id="idm89"><div class="figure-title">Figure 3.2. A typical KildClient session with two open Worlds</div><div class="figure-contents"><div class="mediaobject"><img src="images/typical.png" alt="A typical KildClient session with two open Worlds."/></div></div></div><br class="figure-break"/><p>The first thing to note is that, just like in other MUD clients,
there is an area where the output of the MUD is shown, and a text box
below where you can enter commands. You can edit the commands before
being sent, and only after you press <span class="keysym">ENTER</span> the line
will be sent to the MUD.</p><p>A feature not so universal is the support for opening several
Worlds simultaneously, and using tabs to alternate between them. You
just need to click the tab to change to that World. If the name is
displayed in red, that means that there is new text in that MUD, text
you haven't seen yet. If the KildClient windows does not have focus
(that is, when you using another window and leave KildClient in the
background) and new text arrives in any World, the title of the
KildClient window will change to "(*) KildClient" to alert you of
that.</p><p>There are other ways to move to another open World. The keyboard
shortcuts <span class="keysym">CTRL+Page up</span> and <span class="keysym">CTRL+Page
down</span> move to the next or previous World, respectively.
Alternatively, you can use <span class="keysym">ALT+Right arrow</span> o
<span class="keysym">ALT+Left arrow</span> instead to achieve the same effect. To
got directly to a World, press <span class="keysym">ALT+num</span>, where
<span class="keysym">num</span> is a number from 1 to 9. This way you can move to
any one of the first nine open Worlds.</p><p>On the left of the command entry box there is a button with a
broom. Click on it to erase the whole command line.</p><p>You can recall recently typed commands with the arrow keys.
Pressing the <span class="keysym">up arrow</span> recalls the previous command,
and the <span class="keysym">down arrow</span> moves to the following
command. If the input box has multiple lines, as described below, then
use <span class="keysym">Alt</span> and the arrows.</p><p>On the right, there is a button with an arrow poiting downwards.
Click on it to get a list of the last typed commands. Selecting one of
these commands will put it in the text box for you to repeat it,
possibly changing it before.</p><p>On the extreme right, there are two small arrows. These arrows
allow you to enlarge the input box if you type long input lines. The
input box can have from one to ten lines. The arrow pointing up
increases the size, the arrow pointing down decreases it.</p><p>The behaviour of input boxes with one or several lines is
different: if there is only one line, and more text than fits the
width is entered, the text is scrolled horizontally. On multi-line
input boxes, however, text that does not fit one line is wrapped to
the next line. A scroll-bar may be displayed if the whole text does
not fit in the number of lines selected.</p><p>As mentioned briefly before, the behaviour of the up and down
arrows is different. If the <span class="keysym">Alt</span> key is held, then you
will retrieve other commands in the history. If you press just the up
and down arrows, it may retrieve another command or simply move the
cursor: if you have just sent a command or just retrieved a command,
then the arrow keys will move through other commands, but if you have
moved the cursor in order to edit, the up and down arrows will move to
the previous or next line. This may sound complicated, but is actually
natural, the arrows do what you expect them to do.</p><p>In the single-line input box (but not in the multi-line one), a
feature called <span class="emphasis"><em>command auto-completion</em></span> is
enabled: when you start typing a command, a list of the previously
typed commands that start with the same string you've typed. You can
select one of them from the list to repeat it or change it.</p><p>However, in both input methods, you can type the start of a
command and press <span class="keysym">Alt+Shift+Up arrow</span> to retrieve a
previous command that starts with the typed text. You can then use
<span class="keysym">Alt+Shift+Up arrow</span> and <span class="keysym">Alt+Shift+Down
arrow</span> to navigate through all the saved commands with that
prefix.</p><p>You can enter several commands at once in the command line
separating them with <code class="literal">%;</code>. For example, if you type
<code class="literal">unlock door %; open door</code>, two commands will be sent
to the MUD in sequence: first <code class="literal">unlock door</code>, and then
<code class="literal">open door</code>. Spaces around the <code class="literal">%;</code>
are ignore and can be used for clarity. Note: it is possible to
configure the command separator to be another string instead of
<code class="literal">%;</code>. See <a class="xref" href="sec_we_input.xhtml" title="4.3. Input">Section 4.3, “Input”</a>.</p><p>Another special feature of the command line is that you can
execute Perl statements from it. Starting a line with a slash
(<code class="literal">/</code>) causes that line not to be sent to the world,
but to be intepreted by the built-in Perl interpreter. To try it, type
in the command box <strong class="userinput"><code>/$world->echonl("Hello, Perl
World!")</code></strong>. You should see "<code class="computeroutput">Hello, Perl
World!</code>" printed in the screen. What has happened is
that the command <strong class="userinput"><code>$world->echonl("Hello, Perl
World!")</code></strong> has been run by Perl, and this command causes a
string to be printed in the screen (but not to be sent to the MUD).
Don't worry if you do not understand the syntax yet, we will explain
it in <a class="xref" href="chap_perl.xhtml" title="Chapter 7. Using Perl in KildClient">Chapter 7, <em>Using Perl in KildClient</em></a>. For now, just keep in mind that if
you type a line starting with <code class="literal">/</code>, it will not be
sent to the MUD, but what follows the slash is treated as a Perl
command and executed.</p><p>Should you need to send a line that starts with
<code class="literal">/</code> to the MUD, use two slashes: entering
<strong class="userinput"><code>//list</code></strong> will send <strong class="userinput"><code>/list</code></strong>
to the MUD.</p><p>If you are using the multi-line input bar, you can enable to
built in spell checker to verify the text as you type. Misspelled
words will be highlighted with a red line below them, and you can
right-click on them to show a menu with possible spellings. To
configure this feature, see <a class="xref" href="sec_we_input.xhtml" title="4.3. Input">Section 4.3, “Input”</a>.</p></section><footer><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table style="width: 100%; "><tr><td style="width: 40%; text-align: left; "><a accesskey="p" href="sec_world-selector.xhtml">Prev</a> </td><td style="width: 20%; text-align: center; "><a accesskey="u" href="ch03.xhtml">Up</a></td><td style="width: 40%; text-align: right; "> <a accesskey="n" href="sec_closing_worlds.xhtml">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td style="width: 40%; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; ">3.1. Connecting to a MUD </td><td style="width: 20%; text-align: center; "><a accesskey="h" href="index.xhtml">Home</a></td><td style="width: 40%; text-align: right; vertical-align: top; "> 3.3. Closing Worlds and Exiting KildClient</td></tr></table></div></footer></body></html>
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