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Lua utilities

The "utils" (utilities) library offers various helpful utility functions, including:


  • Bringing a different program window to the front
  • Compression and decompression
  • Hashing using various methods
  • Base-64 encoding and decoding
  • Dialog boxes for asking questions and making announcements
  • Dialog boxes for choosing from lists and combo-boxes
  • Executing Windows "shell" commands
  • File-picker dialog box
  • Spell-checker "misspelt word" dialog box
  • Spell-checker utilities such as metaphone and edit distance
  • Conversion of strings to and from hexadecimal form
  • Read disk directory into a table
  • Information about MUSHclient environment (directory names)
  • List of world function names
  • List of plugin callback function names
  • Split a string into a table, at delimiters (eg. comma-delimited)
  • UTF-8 (Unicode) encoding, decoding and checking
  • XML parser


See also the following libraries:


  • Perl-compatible regular expressions library (rex)
  • Big number (arbitrary precision) library (bc)
  • Bit management library (bit)


You can also use the luacom library (to access COM objects). To do this you must first "require" it, like this:


require "luacom"


There is documentation about luacom in a PDF document in the MUSHclient docs subdirectory.

Lua functions

utils.activatenotepad - Actvitates the specified notepad window
utils.appendtonotepad - Appends text to the specified notepad window
utils.base64decode - Decode a string which was base-64 encoded
utils.base64encode - Encode a string with base-64 encoding
utils.callbackslist - Returns a table of plugin callback function names
utils.choose - Display a combo box with choices in it
utils.colourcube - Changes the colour cube used by 256-colour ANSI codes
utils.compress - Compress a string
utils.decompress - Decompress a string
utils.directorypicker - Invokes the Windows standard "directory picker" dialog box
utils.editbox - Display a large message box and get free-format reply
utils.edit_distance - Returns the Levenshtein Edit Distance between two words
utils.filepicker - Invokes the Windows standard "file picker" dialog box
utils.filterpicker - Display a dialog box which filters its contents as you type
utils.fontpicker - Invokes the Windows standard "font picker" dialog box
utils.fromhex - Convert a string from hex
utils.functionlist - Returns a table of MUSHclient world function names
utils.getfontfamilies - Returns all fonts available to Windows
utils.glyph_available - Returns the glyph index of a glyph (character) in a font
utils.hash - Hash a string, returning the hex codes
utils.info - Information about directories, locale, etc.
utils.infotypes - Returns a table of all GetInfo type selectors
utils.inputbox - Display a message box and get free-format reply
utils.listbox - Display a dialog box with choices in it in a single selection list box
utils.md5 - Hash a string using the 128-bit MD5 algorithm
utils.menufontsize - Alters the size of the font used in menus
utils.metaphone - Returns metaphones (sound-alike codes) for the supplied word
utils.msgbox - Display a message box and get a response
utils.multilistbox - Display a dialog box with choices in it in a multiple selection list box
utils.readdir - Read a disk directory into a table
utils.reload_global_prefs - Forces global preferences file to be reloaded
utils.sendtofront - Bring a window to the front
utils.sha256 - Hash a string using a 256-bit hash
utils.shellexecute - Executes a Windows "shell" command
utils.spellcheckdialog - Spell-checker dialog
utils.split - Split a delimited string into a table
utils.timer - Returns the high-resolution timer output
utils.tohex - Convert a string into hex
utils.umsgbox - Display a message box and get a response (Unicode)
utils.utf8convert - Encodes a string into a UTF-8 string
utils.utf8decode - Encodes a series of Unicode codes into a UTF-8 string
utils.utf8encode - Encodes a series of Unicode codes into a UTF-8 string
utils.utf8sub - Returns a substring of a UTF-8 string
utils.utf8valid - Checks if a UTF-8 string is valid
utils.xmlread - Parses an XML string into a nested table

Topics

Lua base functions
Lua bc (big number) functions
Lua bit manipulation functions
Lua coroutine functions
Lua debug functions
Lua io functions
Lua LPEG library
Lua math functions
Lua os functions
Lua package functions
Lua PCRE regular expression functions
Lua script extensions
Lua string functions
Lua syntax
Lua table functions
Scripting
Scripting callbacks - plugins

(Help topic: general=lua_utils)

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