Batch processor

[Griatch]

The commit is a few weeks old now, but I've been busy. It's all
documented in the wiki, but it's probably best to mention it here
too.

One of Evennia's main strengths is the ability to expand the system
through normal python modules. Not only is this powerful in the sense
of having access to python, it is also convenient since it allows you
to develop the game using real programming editors and coding
practices and without having to store the source code itself in the
database. However, building your world is another aspect just as
important to creating a good game as the behind-the-scenes
programming. Whereas building works fine to do through the online
interface (telnet, web or whatever protocol now meets your fancy), it
will always be a lot of work, including writing a lot of text.
Wouldn't it be nice if this part of development could also be done
offline, in your favourite editor, spellchecker etc and only pushed
into the game when you are happy with it?

The @batchprocess command tries to allow this. The concept is dead
simple; the batch processor takes a very simple text file (which you
can keep on your HD) and reads it for evennia commands (@dig, @create
etc), performing them in sequence. The look of the input file is
trivial, it's basically a list of commands with comments (#). Text
input to commands can be split over many lines (the processor puts it
all together for you into a nice formatted text as it runs), allowing
you to make easy-to overview "build templates" of rooms, zones,
detailed descriptions etc. The processor also has an interactive mode
where you can step through your batch file like you would a debugger,
running each command more carefully, skip some, jump back and forth
etc. The system should be relatively future-proof (except if the input
format to default commands should change). There is an example batch
file in the game/commands/examples directory.

While Evennia is being developed, there are still situations where a
change to the database could happen. Especially when playing around as
a developer it it's sometimes just easiest to delete the database file
(in the case of some databases at least) and start over. I know I do
that on a regular basis at least, to test that changes work in a
vanilla install.
With the batch processor, developers can easily make a few batch-files
to show off new features in the engine, or in order to rebuild their
own testing grounds in-game whenever they want to start from a fresh
database. And whereas online building will likely be more and more
important as your staff and mud grows, having the starting "blueprint"
of it as separate files outside the database can be a good idea.
Theoretically you could distribute an entire mud-world as a bootstrap-
textfile this way ...
.
Griatch