Aliases

What is an alias?

An alias is a way to create complex or new commands.
Let's say that you often use the following sequence of commands to recognize an user:


			//WHOIS Nickname

			//CTCP PING Nickname

			//CTCP VERSION Nickname

			//CTCP FINGER Nickname

It may be annoying to type all these commands each time.
So you can create an alias that does everything by typing just '/BIGINFO Nickname'.
Open the aliases dialog and add an alias called BIGINFO.
Just place the following code in the body of the alias:


			/<

			    whois $1;

			    ctcp PING $1;

			    ctcp VERSION $1;

			    ctcp  FINGER $1;

			    echo $_window Sent BIGINFO request for $1. Waiting for reply...;

			>

The $1 variable will be evaluated to the first parameter that you pass to the alias.
So typing /BIGINFO Pragma , $1 will evaluate to 'Pragma'.

Another example

Another classic example:
Alias 'P':


			    /part $0;

This is a simple part shortcut.
$0 will evaluate to ALL parameters passed , so you can write:


			/P #kaos Bye to all!;

And $0 will evaluate to '#kaos Bye to all!'.
If there was $1 , it would be evaluated to '#kaos' only, and the other words ignored.
Another way to do it could be:
Alias 'P':


			    /part $1 $2-;

$1 will evaluate to '#kaos' and $2- to all the words following the first : 'Bye to all!'.
In this way you have a problem: if no second word is specified in the alias call,
$2- will be evaluated to $_null.
You can prevent it in the following way:
Alias 'P':


			/<

			    if ($2)part $1 $2-;

			    else part $1 Bye to all!

			>

In this way ,if you don't specify a part message (starting from the second parameter) ,
a default one will be used.

Notes

*
The '$0','$1',...'$9' variables are LOCAL variables , you can SET and UNSET it , but you will never see the changes outside of the current alias.

*
You can call other aliases from an alias , and if you want you can use it recursively , but there is no infinite-recursion check as in mIrc , so you MUST exit from the recursion sooner or later.
An infinite recursion loop WILL hang kvirc!.

*
A command is terminated either by a ';' or a newline.
The correct syntax requires to start an alias with a '/' and include it into a block of commands.
However ,from this version , the block become optional,and you can write the alias text just like it were typed in a channel window : only the leading '/' is needed.
So these three versions of the 'HOP' alias are valid:
/< set $last.chan $_chan; part $last.chan; join $last.chan; unset $last.chan >
is equivalent to
/set $last.chan $_chan part $last.chan join $last.chan unset $last.chan
is equivalent to
/< set $last.chan $_chan; part $last.chan; join $last.chan; unset $last.chan; >

*
An alias is always bound to the window that is executed in.
If it is executed from anoter alias or event , it gets the window of the calling command.
So every call to $_window , $_chan or $_target will return that window/channel/target name.

*
$0 is equivalent to $1-.
$0- will give you all the parameters repeated twice!.

*
It is NOT a good idea to pass $_null as an alias parameter.
Since it will give problems in handling the $X- variables.
For example if you call the 'P' alias in the following way:
/P $_chan Turning to $_null guys!.
$2- evaluation will be stopped by the $_null parameter,
so the part message will be truncated to 'Turning to'.
However $4 will still return 'quys!' , so it can be used is some way.
Finally , don't use it if you don't really need to.

*
The aliases are parsed sequentially at runtime and executed WHILE parsing it.
There is no previous syntax check or tree-building.
The execution stops at the first error encountered in the parsed command sequence.
It may happen that an alias contain a syntax error in an if conditional subtree , and that is never executed . In that case you will never see that error!
Example: This will execute correctly.
if ($_false)< stupid_command_parser blahblahblahblah > ; else echo $_window OK, it is false!.

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