!	 $eterna: expressions,v 1.8 2004/02/16 08:40:09 mrg Exp $
!
! Copyright (c) 1990-2002  Michael Sandrof, Troy Rollo, Matthew Green,
! and other ircII contributors.
!
! All rights reserved.  See the HELP IRCII COPYRIGHT file for more
! information.
!
  This help file describes expresssions available in ${}, and the
  @, IF, WHILE, and FOREACH commands.

  Variable expressions are used to perform arithmetic, string and
  boolean operations. Their syntax is similar to the syntax of most
  computer languages, and is modelled on C syntax. A simple example
  of this, is that when ${A + 2} is used, and the ASSIGNed variable
  A has the value '3', the result is 5.

  Brackets can be used in these expressions, so (A+2)*3 would give a
  value of (3+2)*3 == 15, whereas A+2*3 would give a value of 9, because
  multiplication is performed before addition.

  Note that there is no consitency in the associatity of ircII
  expressions, complex expressions MUST use brackets to force the
  correct evaluation.  Even a simple "5 - 2 - 1" does not work
  as expected, as this is evaluated as "5 - (2 - 1)".  This is a
  bug and may one day be fixed but don't count on it.

  The common arithmetic operations (+, -, *, /) are all available.
  Additionally, there is a string concatenation operator (##).
  This treats both sides as strings and pastes them together. Thus
  if A is 3 and B is 7, "A##B" becomes "37", but "A+B" becomes 10.

  The C-like increment (++) and decrement (--) operators are available.
  The expression "A++" is like "@A = A + 1".

  You can also assign values to a variable in these expressions
  using the '=' operator. Thus if you have the expression "C = A+B",
  it will assign the value 10 to C. This has a number of affects.
  The most common case is the @ command, where you can enter this expression
  literally:

    @ C = A + B

  The '=' operator returns the value assigned. Thus you can extend
  this to:

    @ D = C = A + B

  Which will assign the value 10 to both C and D. In a $ expression,
  you might want to assign a value to a variable, and display it at the
  same time. Thus you might do the following:

    echo The value of C is now ${C = A+B}

  which would set C to 10 and display "The value of C is now 10".

  Comparison operations also exist. These return 1 if the comparison is
  valid (true) and 0 if it is invalid (false). The comparison operations
  available are:

    == (equal to)
    >  (greater than)
    >= (greater than or equal to)
    <  (less than)
    <= (less than or equal to)
    != (not equal to)

  Thus, the following expressions would result in the following results:
   ( recall A = 3 and B = 7 )

	A == B			FALSE	0
	A == 3			TRUE	1
	A > 3			FALSE	0
	A >= 3			TRUE	1
	A != 3			TRUE	1

  These expressions can be combined with || (OR), && (AND) and ^^ (XOR).
  So (A == 3) || (B==3) would be TRUE, and (A == 2) && (B == 7) would be
  FALSE. You can also negate expressions with ! (NOT), so !(A == 3) would
  be FALSE. These boolean expressions are used primarily in IF and WHILE.

  A string expression is considered to be true if it is non empty. So
  if E has the value "word", then E || (A > 3) is true, because E has
  a non empty value, and !E is false.

  Functions can also appear in expressions. The arguments to functions
  are evaluated as normal $ type expressions. Thus the following alias:

    alias test echo ${ MID(3 2 $0) + 5) }

  is executed with /test 123456, would give  34 (Two digits from position 3
  in $0) + 5, giving 39. If the function returns another function name, that
  function name can be called with another set of brackets. Thus if you have
  the following set of aliases:

    alias fptr
    {
        if ( [$0] )
            { @ function_return = func1 }
            { @ function_return = func2 }
    }
    alias func1 @ function_return = this is $0
    alias func2 @ function_return = that is $0
    alias check echo ${ fptr($0)($1) }

  then /check 0 1 would print "that is 1", and /check 1 0 would print
  "this is 0".

  Array expressions can also be used in this way. For example:

    assign A.1.1 One One was a racehorse
    assign A.1.2 Two Two was one too
    assign A.2.1 One One won one race
    assign A.2.2 Two Two won one too
    alias rhyme echo ${ A[$0][$1] }

  would cause /rhyme 2 1 to print "One One won one race".

  Function and array expressions can be combined to give a form
  of pointer arithmetic like that seen in C. If a function
  RhymeNum exists as follows:

    alias RhymeNum @ function_return = [A]
  and rhyme is changed to:
    alias rhyme echo ${ RhymeNum()[$0][$1] }

  /rhyme 2 1 still prints "One One won one race". This is because
  RhymeNum returns A, and the expression then becomes A[$0][$1].
  The $0 is expanded to 2, so it becomes A.2[$1], and the $1 is
  expanded to 1, so it becomes A.2.1, which is then substituted as
  a variable for "One One won one race". The reverse is also possible.
  For example, a robot might have the following:

     alias thing.0 @ function_return = laughs his silly head off
     alias thing.1 @ function_return = growls menacingly
     alias thing.2 @ function_return = smiles like a crocodile
     alias thing.3 @ function_return = wails uncontrollably
     alias something SAY WereBot ${ thing[$RANDOM(4)]() }

  Will cause WereBot to say that it's laughing itself silly, growling
  menacingly, smiling like a crocodile or wailing uncontrollably.
  Assuming RANDOM(4) results in a value of 2, This expands to
  thing.2(), which is then considered to be a function and substituted
  to "smiles like a crocodile", the end result being that WereBot will
  say "WereBot smiles like a crocodile".

  Finally, there are occasions when you need to get back to the $
  substitution level. This can be done by enclosing text to be used at
  this level in [..]. For example, [A] substitutes to a literal 'A', 
  whereas A on its own substitutes to 3, and [$0] is needed to get
  argument 0, because 0 on its own is taken to be the number 0.
  Example:

    alias something SAY WereBot ${ [$0][$RANDOM(4)]() }

  will case /something thing to first expand [$0] to thing, giving
  thing[$RANDOM(4)](), and if $RANDOM(4) returns 1, this becomes
  thing.1(), which expands to "growls menacingly", and causes
  WereBot to say "WereBot growls menacingly".


  The following is the parse tree for expressions such as  those

	NU_EXPR = NU_CONJ
	NU_CONJ = NU_CONJ && NU_CONJ	|
		  NU_CONJ || NU_CONJ	|
		  NU_CONJ ^^ NU_CONJ	|
		  NU_ASSN
	NU_ASSN = varexp = NU_ASSN	|
		  NU_COMP
	NU_COMP = NU_COMP == NU_COMP	|
		  NU_COMP != NU_COMP	|
		  NU_COMP >  NU_COMP	|
		  NU_COMP >= NU_COMP	|
		  NU_COMP <  NU_COMP	|
		  NU_COMP <= NU_COMP	|
		  NU_ADD
	NU_ADD  = NU_ADD + NU_ADD	|
		  NU_ADD - NU_ADD	|
		  NU_ADD ## NU_ADD	|
		  NU_MULT
	NU_MULT = NU_MULT * NU_MULT	|
		  NU_MULT / NU_MULT	|
		  NU_UNIT
	NU_UNIT = token NUX_MODIF	|
		 unaryop token		|
		( NU_EXPR )		|
		[ expression ] NUX_MODIF

	NUX_MODIF = ( expression ) NUX_MODIF |
		    [ expression ] NUX_MODIF

Special cases:
  If a (...) or {...} construct is quoted with \(...\) or \{...\}
  then variable expansion will take place on the first available
  parse run.  However, after parsed, the \'s are eaten. e.g.
    alias bonk echo ($0)        will return "($*)" regardless of
  the argument to the alias.  No expansion takes place.  However, in
    alias bonk echo \($0\)
  expansion takes place as the special meaning of the () is taken
  away by \.  This will return "(arguments to bonk)".
