4.1.11 Calling Built-in Functions and Other Verbs

MOO provides a large number of useful functions for performing a wide variety of operations; a complete list, giving their names, arguments, and semantics, appears in a separate section later. As an example to give you the idea, there is a function named `length' that returns the length of a given string or list.

The syntax of a call to a function is as follows:

name(expr-1, expr-2, ..., expr-N)

where name is the name of one of the built-in functions. The expressions between the parentheses, called arguments, are each evaluated in turn and then given to the named function to use in its appropriate way. Most functions require that a specific number of arguments be given; otherwise, E_ARGS is raised. Most also require that certain of the arguments have certain specified types (e.g., the length() function requires a list or a string as its argument); E_TYPE is raised if any argument has the wrong type.

As with list construction, the splicing operator `@' can precede any argument expression. The value of such an expression must be a list; E_TYPE is raised otherwise. The elements of this list are passed as individual arguments, in place of the list as a whole.

Verbs can also call other verbs, usually using this syntax:

expr-0:name(expr-1, expr-2, ..., expr-N)

Expr-0 must return an object number; E_TYPE is raised otherwise. If the object with that number does not exist, E_INVIND is raised. If this task is too deeply nested in verbs calling verbs calling verbs, then E_MAXREC is raised; the default limit is 50 levels, but this can be changed from within the database; see the chapter on server assumptions about the database for details. If neither the object nor any of its ancestors defines a verb matching the given name, E_VERBNF is raised. Otherwise, if none of these nasty things happens, the named verb on the given object is called; the various built-in variables have the following initial values in the called verb:

this

an object, the value of expr-0

verb

a string, the name used in calling this verb

args

a list, the values of expr-1, expr-2, etc.

caller

an object, the value of this in the calling verb

player

an object, the same value as it had initially in the calling verb or, if the calling verb is running with wizard permissions, the same as the current value in the calling verb.

All other built-in variables (argstr, dobj, etc.) are initialized with the same values they have in the calling verb.

As with the discussion of property references above, I said "usually" at the beginning of the previous paragraph because that syntax is only allowed when the name follows the rules for allowed variable names. Also as with property reference, there is a syntax allowing you to compute the name of the verb:

expr-0:(expr-00)(expr-1, expr-2, ..., expr-N)

The expression expr-00 must return a string; E_TYPE is raised otherwise.

The splicing operator (`@') can be used with verb-call arguments, too, just as with the arguments to built-in functions.

In many databases, a number of important verbs are defined on #0, the system object. As with the `$foo' notation for properties on #0, the server defines a special syntax for calling verbs on #0:

$name(expr-1, expr-2, ..., expr-N)

(where name obeys the rules for variable names) is an abbreviation for

#0:name(expr-1, expr-2, ..., expr-N)