Magical Mystery Tour
I want to take you on a journey with the Python language and libraries. I want you to see what they can do (the three >’s is a prompt).>>> s = " 'get a' cookie now ">>> s" 'get a' cookie now ">>> import shlex>>> shlex.split(s)['get a', 'cookie', 'now']
Bam. Now, let’s introduce a little more complexity. Let’s say there are two cookies: one is normal, and the other is enchanted (in that search order). The enchantment does not modify anything in the way of a name or description. You need to get the second one. The “get a” token is not realistic; simply to brag on the quoting capabilities of both the language and the shlex parser.
Let’s allow the player to say, “with respect to the search order [the natural, incidental order of the relevant linked list of items], select the nth cookie.” He can say this by appending ”#n” to the end of the proper token. All other #’s in the token, besides the last one, are to be ignored.>>> s = “ ‘get a’ cookie#2 now “>>> s“ ‘get a’ cookie#2 now “>>> shlex.split(s)[‘get a’, ‘cookie#2’, ‘now’]>>> a = shlex.split(s)[1]>>> a‘cookie#2’>>> a.rsplit(‘#’, 1)[‘cookie’, ‘2’]
And, for the picky…>>> s = “ ‘get a’ cookie#3#2 now “>>> s“ ‘get a’ cookie#3#2 now “>>> shlex.split(s)[‘get a’, ‘cookie#3#2’, ‘now’]>>> a = shlex.split(s)[1]>>> a‘cookie#3#2’>>> a.rsplit(‘#’, 1)[‘cookie#3’, ‘2’]
That’s what I mean by “Legos.”