Aliases

Aliases

Introduction

Aliases are handy little things that can make your life so much easier. If you have not already take a look at "help alias" & "help alias tutorial". There is a lot of stuff in there and afterwards you may find yourself asking, "great, but what now?". That is where this page comes in. There has been some sharing of aliases amongst thieves in the past but it is usually a ono-on-one thing or on the talker where it can quickly vanish from the screen.

From the help file we can see that, in its simplest form, an alias can be a letter or two that replaces a command, like alias C consider If I have C as an alias I can then tpye "C warrior" and get the results I want back.

Basic Alias Notes

An alias can be as simple as the example above or something far more complex using multiple commands and various arguments and variables. First things first, have a look at the help alias tutorial file.

There is a lot to digest there. The talker is a good place to ask if you are stuck with an alias or just want to ask what other people do in a situation.

Categories

I like neat orderly lists, broken down into managable sections. A while back categories were introduced to the alias system and I rejoiced! Gone was the huge tagle of aliasesthat my alias command would generate. Gone was the endless hunting for that certain alias I thin began with a T. I have several catagories set up where most of my alaises live. When looking for a certain one I can either do "alias sorted" to get a nice list by category or "alias show category <category>". I have several categories set up already that cover most of the aliases I have created. They are:

• Club_* Alias used for the various clubs to which I belong.
• Combat Fighting related commands
• Communication Talker, soul, and tell commands
• Crafts Crafts, laundering and fixing stuff, first aid and document forging
• Faith God botherer stuff
• Groups Aliases to make grouping easier
• Guild Various aliases for use in the guilds around the disc
• Idle Some aliases used for when I am hanging out talking
• System Scores, stats, skills and things that my character does not need to know about (so do not go telling him)
• Theft Various aliases I use across the Disc

Here is the alias I use to move things into the various categries. The $ifarg: is used to provide a syntax if I type asc with no arguments if I add arguments the alias will fire as normal.

    asc $ifarg: alias set category $1$ $2$ $else$ frimble This alias is used to move an alias into a predefined category;frimble USAGE:  asc <alias> <category>;frimble Acceptable categories are:;frimble   
    Club_<clubname>  Various clubs;frimble Combat  (Fighting);frimble Communications  (Talking);frimble Crafts  (Crafty skills);frimble Faith (God botherer stuff);frimble Groups  (Group commands);frimble Guild  
    (guild stuff);frimble Idle (All things idle);frimble System  (system commands made easy);frimble Theft  (The art of stealing);frimble Other categories can be setup but think carefully about that 
    first!;frimble -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- $endif$

So, if I were to type asc TEST Combat and hit ENTER My alias TEST would be moved into the COMBAT category. If I were to type asc 'ENTER I would get all the information after the $else$. It would tell me the reason for the alias, how to use it and what categories I already have set up (in case I forget). Not the most useful of aliases but a good illustration (and I do so like nice neat lists, and help text for what I've done).

What to Alias?

Now that you have all this information you may wonder, "What aliases should I set up?" Apart from the examples above I would say be careful, it i seasy to alias commands that really are simple enough as tehy are. You may end up with tons and tons of aliases, and down that road lies madness. If there is somethign you find yourself doing often, or it has many steps (like sewing your clothes) that may be a good candidate for an alias. In the end however, it really is up to you.