Christoph Reichenbach wrote:
> Hi Lars,
>
> > > Thanks in advance for that one! The missing Said() is a major showstopper
> > > right now...
> >
> > I keep thinking maybe we should try to roll our own Parse()/Said() pair. Yes,
> > I realize that they have come a long way since the beginning, but we don't
> > _really_ understand the algorithms, there may be bugs we don't know about,
> > and they may in turn affect further development. And the Said() function is
> > just plain difficult (the path avoiding in SCI1 is going to be as well, but
> > at least then we'll have patent descriptions of the algorithm (only general
> > ideas, the computations aren't mentioned with one word)).
>
> Actually, I'd prefer an implementation with a homemade design. However, I
> don't know enough about the parser to pull this off, and I don't know
> whether you do, either.
>
> We can already verify whether the grammatical structure represented by the
> input token sequence is valid (this is done while building the current
> parse tree). Effectively, the only thing we need to do now is to match
> that sequence against said specs. /Syntactically/, Said specs are a
> finite sequence of elements from the operator set O := {',', '&', '/',
> '(', ')', '[', ']', '#', '<', '>'} and the word list W. Also, you have
> sent me an inductive definition of the semantics (yacc implementation is
> in src/core/said.y) (sorry for repeating all these things, btw).
> However, this still doesn't provide means for matching token strings to
> said specs. To do that, we'd need to have at least an idea of what the
> individual operators mean; applying this idea to said.y might (!) do the
> trick.
>
> So, let me do some more summarization (most of this information was
> gathered from Dark Minister and may not be entirely valid):
> a,b e W any word
> x e (W u O)+ any expression
>
> a matches the word a
> a b matches the sequence 'ab' (b follows a)
> a,b matches the word a (X)OR the word b (OR or XOR?)
> /a matches any sequence ending with the word a
> a> matches any sequence starting with the word a
> (x) matches the expression x
> [x] matches the expression x OR the empty string
> a<b matches a AND b, in any order
>
> If those are correct (big if), I should be able to implement them
> manually. I'll try to do this tomorrow (giving you enough time to
> object (I hope)). I'll first need to build a new grammar, though.
I'll have to look that over more closely.
>
> > Maybe you could do a 'simsaid <address>' console command like the 'simkey'
> > you made way back, to allow us to beta-test more extensively until Said() is
> > finished? Also, it would probably be a help for me to have a testing
> > environment for Parse()/Said() which we don't have at the moment.
>
> Good idea. I'll do that.
>
> > Regarding that missing Graph() subfunction: I don't know if it's necessary at
> > all. I think it was originally used to update the screen in rare cases. But
> > the fact is that FreeSCI updates the screen a lot more than Sierra's SCI did.
> > Yes, there is still that segfault which may be related,
>
> Segfault? When?
Well, I had an idea that I was the only one getting this... It happens only in
games using ornate message boxes. After displaying such a box, if I click the
mouse, the segfault usually occurs. If I press ENTER instead, then I can usually
avoid it by moving the mouse to the console window. So maybe this is related to
mouse pointers?
>
>
> > but it may also have
> > other reasons - for instance your DisposeClone() function (IIRC) disposes a
> > lot more than it should. underBits are really the bytecode's responsibility.
>
> I thought so, too, but QG1 started running out of hunk space fairly
> quickly without it. If Sierra SCI really doesn't handle them, that problem
> was caused by a bug in a different place; the code should isse a warning
> instead.
>
> > In closing: ATM, I've got an IT project/report for my school and exams going
> > right now. Though I will keep on working with FreeSCI as intensely as
> > possible, it may get a bit slow. Yes, I must admit that I've been laying low
> > on SCI research for a long time...
>
> NP. I practically abandoned the project for over three months, too. Take
> your time for your exams; they're more important than this project is.
>
> llap,
> Christoph
