LPC For Dummies 
                   Book One
                      Michael Heron
                  (drakkos@discworld.atuin.net)
               Beta Draft
        LPC For Dummies 1, Second Edition
        Table of Contents
        Mojo The Monkey Says.......................................................................................................................5
        Willkommen!  Bien Venue! Welcome! ...............................................................................................6
         Introduction .....................................................................................................................................6
         The Learning Scenario.....................................................................................................................6
         The Structure of the Game ..............................................................................................................7
         Programming as a Concept .............................................................................................................8
         It's All Down To You....................................................................................................................11
         Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
        My First Room...................................................................................................................................13
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................13
         Your Own Learnville.....................................................................................................................13
         The Basic Template.......................................................................................................................14
         Now, what does all of that mean? .................................................................................................15
         My Room Sucks.............................................................................................................................16
         It's a little too quiet........................................................................................................................17
         A Second Room ............................................................................................................................18
         Our Overall Plan ...........................................................................................................................19
         Property Ladder ............................................................................................................................20
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................21
        My First Area.....................................................................................................................................22
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................22
         The Structure .................................................................................................................................22
         Exits and Maintainability ..............................................................................................................24
         Our Exitses ....................................................................................................................................26
         Chain, chain, chain... .....................................................................................................................29
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................31
        Building The Perfect Beast.................................................................................................................32
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................32
         A First NPC ..................................................................................................................................32
         Breathing Life Into The Lifeless ...................................................................................................34
         Cover Yourself Up, You'll Catch A Cold .....................................................................................37
         Request Item..................................................................................................................................40
         Chatting Away ..............................................................................................................................41
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................42
        Hooking Up........................................................................................................................................43
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................43
         The Path.h Problem .......................................................................................................................43
         Sorted!............................................................................................................................................45
         If At First You Don't Succeed ......................................................................................................47
         Compound Interest ........................................................................................................................50
         Moving ..........................................................................................................................................51
         One Final Touch ...........................................................................................................................53
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................53
        Back To The Beginning......................................................................................................................55
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................55
         Captain Beefy's Return .................................................................................................................55
        Michael Heron                                             Page 2
        LPC For Dummies 1, Second Edition
         The Road Less Travelled ..............................................................................................................56
         Bigger, Better, Faster ....................................................................................................................58
         Probing Dark Depths ....................................................................................................................59
         The Taskmaster .............................................................................................................................60
         Switching Things Around .............................................................................................................62
         Scoping Things Out ......................................................................................................................63
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................65
        Now That We're An Item...................................................................................................................66
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................66
         Virtually Self-Explanatory ............................................................................................................66
         But what does it all mean? ............................................................................................................69
         Beefy's Boots ................................................................................................................................70
         Bling ..............................................................................................................................................71
         A Word Of Warning About Items ................................................................................................73
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................73
        An Inside Job......................................................................................................................................74
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................74
         The Mysterious Room ..................................................................................................................74
         Modifying Exits ............................................................................................................................75
         Shop 'Till You Drop ......................................................................................................................78
         Stabby Joe .....................................................................................................................................80
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................81
        Dysfunctional Behaviour....................................................................................................................82
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................82
         Our Task .......................................................................................................................................82
         The Science Bit... Concentrate! ....................................................................................................82
         The Structure of a Function ..........................................................................................................84
         A Little Bit More... .......................................................................................................................86
         Function Scope .............................................................................................................................87
         Onwards and Upwards!.................................................................................................................88
         Violence Begets Violence .............................................................................................................91
         A Local Shop For Local People ....................................................................................................94
         Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................95
        Going Loopy.......................................................................................................................................96
         Introduction ...................................................................................................................................96
         A Basic Pub ..................................................................................................................................96
         Grumpy Al ....................................................................................................................................97
         Grumpy Al Goes Ballistic ...........................................................................................................100
         Components ................................................................................................................................101
         Loops ..........................................................................................................................................104
         Doing While... .............................................................................................................................105
         For Loops.....................................................................................................................................106
         Fire in the Hole! ..........................................................................................................................108
         Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................109
        Arrays, You say?..............................................................................................................................110
         Introduction .................................................................................................................................110
         Slicey Pete ...................................................................................................................................110
         The Array ....................................................................................................................................113
         Array Indexing ............................................................................................................................115
        Michael Heron                                             Page 3
        LPC For Dummies 1, Second Edition
         Array management.......................................................................................................................116
         Setting Up Stock, LPC Style .......................................................................................................117
         The Foreach Structure .................................................................................................................119
         Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................119
        Hooray for Arrays.............................................................................................................................121
         Introduction .................................................................................................................................121
         A Secret To Be Discovered ........................................................................................................121
         Item Matching .............................................................................................................................123
         A Grue Some Fate! .....................................................................................................................126
         Getting To Our Shop Of Horror .................................................................................................130
         Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................131
        Mapping It Out.................................................................................................................................133
         Introduction .................................................................................................................................133
         The Mapping ...............................................................................................................................133
         The Magic Hate Ball ...................................................................................................................136
         More Mapping Manipulation, Matey ..........................................................................................140
         Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................142
        So Long............................................................................................................................................143
         Introduction .................................................................................................................................143
         The Past .......................................................................................................................................143
         The Present .................................................................................................................................145
         The Future ...................................................................................................................................146
         Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................146
        Reader Exercises..............................................................................................................................147
         Introduction..................................................................................................................................147
         Exercises......................................................................................................................................147
         Send Suggestions.........................................................................................................................149
        Michael Heron                                             Page 4