NewMenu

NewMenu is the b******d stepchild of Menu and the Guilty Bastards hint system. It aims to make game menus quicker and easier to set-up, and hopefully, they’ll look nice, too! Download it here.

Why NewMenu?

The Hugo Library’s Menu routine is a fine thing. It allows menus-within-menus and if you borrow code from Guilty Bastards, you can have a fairly kickin’ hint system. Still, I, Roody Yogurt, wasn’t completely happy with it. I found the routine-based nature of its menu files a bit confusing- especially since the hint system was object-based. On top of that, Hugo menus weren’t showing up on cheapglk interpreters like ifMUD’s Floyd (*), as all menu choices are written in the status window, a window that Floyd ignores altogether. Lastly, I thought menu text was a bit ugly in transcripts and could use a little notation.

(* ifMUD’s Floyd has since been updated to print status windows, but it’s still quite possible to come across an interpreter that doesn’t so this functionality is still useful.)

To fix these things, NewMenu attempts to do the following:

1. Turn all menu pages into configurable objects.
2. Keep menu options in the status window so they are not printed to the transcript.
3. Strengthen the relation between regular menus and hint menus.
4. In glk menus, asterisk placement is changed, and in “cheap menu” mode, the menu is printed out in the main window.
5. Make Menus-within-menus more intuitive.
6. Under regular and glk interpreters, hidden text is printed that should only show up in transcripts, making them look nicer.
7. Add a “CoolPause” routine for prettier pauses.
8. Contains an optional default menu with information about Hugo and IF that can standalone or coexist with game-specific pages.
9. Has a routine called ShowPage for pulling up a menu page straight from the game, so a >COMMANDS command can show a “special commands” page (while the same thing might be accessible from the menu itself).

The Set-Up

To use NewMenu, just #include “newmenu.h” after “hugolib.h”.

Creating Your Menu

menu objects

menu_category class objects are the pages that hold the menu options.

! MENU CATEGORIES
menu_category main_menu "TITLE OF YOUR MAIN MENU"
{
    title_gap 0   ! true value if there is an extra line
                      !  between menu title and "[N]ext key"
    options_gap 1 ! number of lines between "[N]ext key" and menu options
}

1. Your game should have one menu_category called main_menu that the MakeMenu routine will default to (unless it is used with another menu_category object.
2. The name (“TITLE OF YOUR MAIN MENU”) is the text that will show at the top of the screen.
3. The gap properties just exist to allow modification of spacing at the top of the page.

option objects

These are the choices that will populate the message.

! OPTION OBJECTS
option contact_choice "Contact"
{
    in main_menu    ! which menu it is
    option_available {
            if author is not unfriendly
                return true
            else
                return false
            }

    menu_text   {
            ""
            "_ Feel free to send me your thoughts and suggestions at
                         roody.yogurt@gmail.com! What an amazing discourse we will
                         have!\n"
            CoolPause(1)
            }
}

1. The name (“Contact”) is both how the option will show in the menu and also the title of the page when it has been selected.
2. option_available determines when the option will show up in the menu, depending on whether it returns true or not.
3. in main_menu specifies which menu_category the option is in.
4. menu_text is the text that shows up when someone chooses this option.
5. To lead to another menu, we can do this:

option option_choice "CHOICE LEADING TO SUBMENU"
{
    in main_menu
    menu_link    <submenu menu_category object>
}

hints!

So yeah, this thing also supports hints. Just make a hint-page menu_category object, and fill it with hint_options like this:

hint_option studiopass_hints "How do I get on the studio lot?"
{
    in hint_menu
    hints_available
        {
        if studio_lot is visited
            return true
        else
            return false
        }
    hint1
    {
        "Movie studio security is on par with Area 51.  To get on
        the lot, you'll need a pass."
    }
    hint2
    {
        "There's a studio pass in the envelope that was slipped
        under the door of your hotel room."
    }
    hint3
    {
        "Drive to the studio lot.  Make sure you've got the pass
        handy.  Get out of the car and go north."
    }
}

Calling Your Menu

Now, to see your menu, make a routine that calls MakeMenu.

routine DoAbout
{
    MakeMenu ! automatically opens the main_menu object
}

routine DoHint
{
    MakeMenu(hint_menu) ! goes straight to the hint menu
}