Hi! I'm Ken. I'm here to help you learn to program in MOO!
This tutorial is for Absolute Beginners,  no previous
programming experience in any language is assumed!


MOO, despite all the Bovine jokes you may have heard or made
yourself, actually stands for 'Multi-user Object Oriented'
programming language...

MOO is kind of a cross between C++ and LISP, but much easier
to learn.  When you learn to program in  MOO you can build
all kinds of fun things!

This is an INTERACTIVE tutorial!  You will actually be coding
a program while you watch the tape!

Here's how it  works. I will suggest a line or two of code for
you to write.  I will then ask you to pause the tape and
actually enter the code before resuming your viewing.

To pause or resume viewing this tape at any time type
   PAUSE TVNAME  or RESUME TVNAME.
Why not practice doing it now.. 

Were you able to pause and resume without problems? Great!
Let's get started.

Oh, I just remembered. . Many people prefer to have the tv
pause automatically after each line.  If you would like to
try this type:
   autopause tvname
Type:
   resume
to continue each time...

For our first programmed object let's make a Box of Donuts!
It's real easy.  Just type:
   @create $thing named Box of Donuts,donuts

Type:
   inv
to look at your inventory to make sure you've got it.  You
should see it listed there. 

In the language of object oriented programming you just made
a 'child' of the generic object $thing.  The word 'donuts'
is the alias or nickname for your object.

Let's make sure that nickname 'donuts' really works.  Type:
   drop donuts

Now  type:
   look donuts

Hee, hee....Not a very appetizing description so far is it..

Let's change that boring description! Type:
   @describe donuts as "You see a box of yummy scrumptious
   donuts begging to be eaten"

The next thing we'll do is create several kinds of donuts
for inside the box. Type a line like the one that follows
adding as many donut descriptions as you wish.

   @property donuts.kinds {"yummy cherry donut","tasty
   mooberry croissant","creamy custard donut"}

What we just did was add a property called 'kinds' to the
object 'box of donuts'.  This property is a list of 3 donut
descriptions.

Now let's see if you were successful.  Type:
   @dump donuts
Do you see a property called 'kinds'  with the correct donut
descriptions?  If you don't, try adding the property again...

Now that we have added the property, let's practice talking
like real MOO programmers and describe what we did

Repeat after me: 'We added the PROPERTY 'kinds' to the OBJECT
'donuts' and INITIALIZED the  property's  VALUE to a LIST of
CHARACTER STRINGS describing various donuts'    Hey!  Are we
cool or what!

Now let's see if we can add an EAT verb to our donuts object
so we can gobble up some of those donuts!   Our EAT verb
might be called like this 'eat donuts'. 

To create the verb type:
   @verb donuts:eat this

Now let's make the verb DO something!  When a player eats
a donut let's have the player choose a donut kind at random
and gobble it up.

I will show you the complete program but don't type it in
just yet... Here it is:

donut_choice = this.kinds[random(3)];
player.location:announce_all(player.name," gobbles up a
  ",donut_choice,".");

Let's talk about what's happening here before we try to
enter the code...

In line 1 random(3) generates a random number from 1 to 3.
( If you had 5 donuts in your box you would make this
random(5).)

Let's suppose the function came up with the number 2..
The variable 'donut_choice would then be set to the second
item in the list 'this.kinds', that is, the value of
'donut_choice' would now be "tasty mooberry croissant"

When a player eats a randomly selected donut everyone in
the room should be informed of this event.  This is the
job of the second line.

In line 2 'player.location'   is the location of the player
who is eating the donut, usually some room.

The verb 'announce_all'  is a verb defined for all rooms
and it means 'tell everybody in the room'  something or
other.. 

If Jill had typed 'eat donut'  all players in the room
(including Jill) would see 'Jill gobbles up  a tasty
mooberry croissant.'

Now lets program that verb!  You will need to type in the
three lines I will show you  followed by a period on a
line by itself.

The first line actually creates a new verb named EAT and
assigns it to the object 'donuts'.  You will be  prompted
for the remaining two lines. Don't forget to end with a
period on a separate line..

Type:
   @program donuts:eat 
   donut_choice = this.kinds[random(3)];
   player.location:announce_all(player.name," gobbles up a
   ",donut_choice,".");

If you were successful you will get my FAVORITE message
'0 errors, verb programmed'.  Congratulations!  

If you were not so lucky you got some cryptic message about
a parse error or whatnot.  Just try again..

Did you remember the semicolons at the ends of the lines?
Did you get the full colon in the right place?  

Now let's try out that verb.  Type:
   eat donuts
3 or four times.  Yum Yum!  Congratulations! You are on your
way to becoming a true blue MOO programmer!

Next time we will introduce some more fun features of the
MOO language and we'll learn how to use the editor!  Until
then, HAPPY MOOING!

Bye bye!