The Kmud Handbook: Usage: Main Window

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### 3. Usage: Main Window

### 3.1 Connecting to a mud host

#### Quick Connect

To connect quickly to a host simply go in the Mud-Menu an select the quick connect option. Enter the hostname or the IP-address of the host and the port number. If you do not specify the port number the value 23 (standard telnet port) will be assumed.

#### Connection Wizard

The connection wizard is used to create character/mud profiles for connecting to a mud. To display the connection wizard, select "Connection Wizard" in the "Mud" menu.

To create a new character and mud profile, click the "New" button. A new dialog comes up where you can enter the characters name into the "name" text field. You can assign an existing profile to this character when you press "Select" beside the profile. Then enter the details for the mud into text fields in the mud section. If the mud already exists and your just creating a new character, clicking the "Select" button will allow you to select a mud. Once the details have been entered click "Apply" or "Connect" apply your changes. "Apply" will only activate the selected profile to allow you making changes (e.g. to triggers, aliases, etc.) without being online. "Connect" also connects you to the mud you specified in your profile.

To edit an existing character and mud, select the profile from the list on the left hand side. This will display the character details in a new dialog. Make any changes that are needed using the text fields then press the "Aplly" or "Connect" button to update the changes and close the dialog.

When entering the mud details, it is possible to check that the mud is up and running by clicking the "Ping" button. This will open a window showing the response time of the mud. To close the window click on "Cancel".

Kmud is capable of logging a character onto the mud automatically which saves the user having to enter their user name and password. To enable this option the characters name and password must be entered in the wizard. Details of the text used to prompt for the user name and password should also be entered.

### 3.2 Aliases / Macros

Alias are used to perform commands when either text is entered into the Kmud input line or a command is performed by pressing a key. This could be used for example to show a players health when the alias 'hp' is used.

To create an alias select "Aliases" from the "Profile" menu. The aliases are used to create new commands. The new commands are made up from several existing commands. If for example you wanted to create a command called "move" that made a character move north , south then west you would press the "New" button in the aliases dialogue,a new dialog comes up and then enter the commands "north ; south ; west" into the "Definition" text field. The name of the new alias should be entered into the "Alias Name" field, in our case "move". If you wish the alias to be activate by pressing a key like F1 then press the "change" button and setup the key you want to use. Modifiers can also be used (like CTRL, SHIFT and ALT). Kmud recognizes numpad keys. So that way you can setup numpad walking by assigning for example the "8" on your keypad to "north". Press "OK" to apply the changes or "Cancel" for just closing the dialog.

When Kmud finds and replaces an alias in your input, it preserves the other input. So you can make an alias like "sc" -> "shoot with crossbow at" and enter "sc yeti" to shoot at the yeti and "sc rabbit" to shoot at the rabbit. You can also create nested aliases. For example an alias "scy" -> "sc yeti" together with the above alias will shoot at the yeti. Automatic loop detection should prevent infinite loops when aliases just call each other and can't be fully resolved.

It is possible for external commands to be executed from in an alias. The could be used to view web based mud mail for example. All external commands must be preceded by the external command character. The default setting for this is '#'. This can be changed by selecting the "Preferences" menu options and changing to the "Input settings" tab pane.

Editing an alias is similar it inserting a new one. You can edit an existing alias by selecting an alias in the list and clicking on the "Edit" button. To delete an alias select the alias from the list and press the "Delete" button. Press "OK" in the alias dialog to close the dialog and save your changes. "Cancel" will close the dialog without applying the changes.

You can deactivate (and, of course, reactivate) alias resolving by pressing the associated hotkey. The hotkey is configurable via the "Keys" entry in the settings menu. It defaults to CTRl+A. The state of alias resolving is indicated by the appearance of the alias icon in Kmud's toolbar. If the icon is in inactive state, alias resolving is turned off. However you can still edit aliases using the menu.

### 3.3 Triggers

Triggers allow Kmud to send a command to a mud when a certain text message is received. This could be done for example to make a character take a drink when the Kmud receives the message "You are thirsty.".

To create a trigger, select the triggers option in the profile menu. This will display a dialog with a list of triggers that have been created. If there are no triggers for the current mud then the list will be empty.

To create a new trigger select the 'New' button. This will open a new dialog with two text fields. Enter the text into the trigger field that cause Kmud to send a command to mud. This text can also be in the form of a regular expression if the regular expression button is set. Further information about the regular expression system used can be found at Trolltechs website ( RegExp online documentation)

Next the action to be performed when the trigger is triggered has to be set. This can be either sending a command to the mud or changing the appearance of the text that triggered the trigger.

To send a command when a trigger is triggered, select the "Send command" option button and enter the command into the textfield. It is also possible to create color triggers i.e. to change the appearance of the text that caused the trigger or the whole line with the text in it. This is done by setting either the "Change appearance of matching string" or "Change appearance of entire line" option buttons. Select the attributes you want to change via the checkboxes and choose your color and fonts by clicking on the color and font buttons.

Click the 'OK' button to create the trigger or the 'Cancel' button to cancel the creation of the trigger.

Triggers can be edited or deleted from the trigger list by clicking on the 'Delete' and 'Edit' buttons in the triggers dialog. Clicking the 'OK' button in the triggers dialogs will save the triggers and clicking the 'Cancel' button will close the dialog without saving the changes.

You can deactivate (and, of course, reactivate) triggers by pressing the associated hotkey. The hotkey is configurable via the "Keys" entry in the settings menu. It defaults to CTRl+T. The state of trigger execution is indicated by the appearance of the triggers icon in Kmud's toolbar. If the icon is in inactive state, trigger execution is turned off. However you can still edit triggers using the menu. If a trigger is looping, deactivation can be used to stop this.

### 3.4 Logging

The logging options in Kmud are used to save the output from Kmud into a text file. The logging option can be activated/deactivated clicking the logging button on the tool bar.

To change the file that the log is written to, select the logging option from the Profile menu. This will open the logging setup dialog. This has a check box for activating/deactivating the logging, selecting whether you want to log the ANSI escape characters too and a text field where the file name of the log that is to be appended to. Clicking the 'OK' button will save the settings and the 'Cancel' button will abort the changes.

### 3.5 Programmable toolbar

Kmud has the ability to define buttons that send commands to the mud client. These appear on a Programmable toolbar which can be hidden or shown from the view menu.

To edit the buttons on the toolbar, select the "Toolbar..." option form the "Profile" menu. This will open the toolbar properties dialog. Here it is possible to add, edit or delete a button.

To add a button press the "New" button. This will pop up another dialog asking for the details of the button. The name is the name given to the button. The command is the command sent to kmud. This could be an external command if it preceded with the external command symbol (the default symbol is '#'). The Icon is the name of the icon to be display on the toolbar. If the icon is left empty then the name is displayed instead of an icon. Once the details have been entered press the "OK" button. The new button should be displayed in the list on the Toolbar properties dialog.

Buttons can be rearranged be selecting them in the list and pressing the up and down icons. They can also be delete or edited by pressing the "Edit" or "Delete" buttons.

Once all the details have been entered, press the "OK" button to update the toolbar.

### 3.6 Speed walking

The speed walking option enables Kmud to repeat a command several times upon it's entry into the input line. For example it walk north 6 times the user would enter '.6n'. This allows the character to speed walk to places. The '.' character is the speed walking character and can be configured from the preferences.

### 3.7 Options

You can change the Font and Color settings in the Menu "Options". Under "Preferences" you can setup the echo behaviour and the memory settings. "Keep last input" means that the when enter is pressed in the input line the text is not deleted only highlighted. "Auto reconnect" is used to turn the auto reconnect option on or off. The options "Use \007 as a beep" when set is used to make a character 7 received from the mud produce a beep sound. "Local Echo" means the printing of your input to the mud-window and "Input Echo" the showing of your entered text in the input line (command line). In the buffer setup you can limit the maximum number of saved in the mud-window and in the input history to save memory allocated by the application. "Save" will explicitly save your options, but they are saved in any case you change the settings, either.

### 3.8 Connection indicator and timer

On the status bar there is a timer that shows how long you have been connect to a mud. This timer will start when you connect to a mud and stop when you disconnect from the mud. There is also a icon that changes to represent the connected/disconnected state of Kmud.

### 3.9 Auto Reconnect

Kmud provides a feature for reconnecting to a mud when the mud disconnect you. The Auto Reconnect options can be activated in the preferences. When the options is on and Kmud is disconnect from the mud that is running, a window will appear asking if you want to reconnect. Click on the "Reconnect" button to reconnect or cancel if you don't wish to reconnect. If neither of the buttons have been pressed in 10 seconds, then Kmud will attempt to connect automatically.

### 3.10 Input Line

In kmud it is possible to have one or two input lines. The input lines are used to send commands from user to the mud. Every time a command is entered it is stored in a history buffer so it can be entered again. To scroll up and down the history buffer use the up and down arrow keys.

An alternate way of access the history buffer is to right click on the input line. This will display a history menu that contains the last 8 elements added to the history buffer. Selecting an element from this menu will place the text into the input line.

### 3.11 Multiline input for entering large texts with line breaks

It is possible to send large amounts of text to a mud. This can be difficult to do using the input lines. There is a option in the view menu that is used to display the multiline input window. This window will allow multiple lines of text with line breaks to be sent a mud. This can be useful for things like chatting.

### 3.12 Output notification after some silent time in the mud

If Kmud receives output and the user does not use Kmud for a configurable amount of time, then Kmud will inform the user that Kmud as received input by flashing the Kmud icon on the title bar.

The time before the icon starts to flash can be configured in the preferences in the Output Notification section.

### 3.13 Split screen when scrolling back in history

When scrolling backwards in the history window of Kmud, the history window will split into two sections. The top section is the history and this can be scrolled through using the scroll bar. The bottom section is used is display any new input that arrives from the mud while you are scrolling through the history. To join the two sections again, scroll too the bottom of the history section.

### 3.14 Boss Key

Kmud as a feature to minimize the mud window to an icon on KPanel. This can be done by pressing the boss key or selecting the "Help! The Boss!" option in the help menu. This option is used to hide Kmud for people playing muds when they should not be. ;-)

The boss key can be changed by selecting the "Keys" menu item from the options menu. The default setting of the Boss key is the escape key.

### 3.15 Command Line Parameters

There are several command line parameters than can be used when starting Kmud from the command line. Kmud supports the following parameters:

- -h, --help Show this help.
- -v, --version Show Kmud version.
- -h host, --host host Connect to specified host.
- -p port, --port port Connect to specified port.
- -w , --wizard Connect to specified mud wizard entry.

Examples: kmud -w \"Sunbright@Midnight Sun\" kmud --wizard Sunbright@WOW kmud --host midnight-sun.ludd.luth.se --port 3000

### 3.16 Kmud Plugins

Kmud supports plugins that can be used to enhance and add new features to Kmud. Their is a "Plugin Manager" that can be used to configure the plugins. This can be found in the "Plugin" menu. You can load and unload a plugin by checking or unchecking the checkbox of the corresponding plugin. To configure a plugin, select the plugin from the plugin manager and click the "Configure..." button. But this depends on on the plugin. Not every plugin has to be configurable.

In order for Kmud to find plugins when it starts, all plugins should be placed in $KDEDIR/lib/kmud/, $HOME/.kde/lib/kmud/ or $LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

If you want to write a plugin for Kmud, please see the README file in the kmud/plugins directory of the source distribution.

### 3.17 Help

This user manual will be displayed when you press F1 in the application. Besides there are many situations where you can get quickhelp. Just right-click on the area where you want help and select "Quickhelp" in the appearing menu.

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