Mystic BBS has an embedded Python engine for both BBS modifications and games, as well as completely scriptable servers.
For BBS related modifications, Python can be executed by a menu command or through an MCI display code. This means that any prompt or command on a menu can be replaced with a custom Python script developed by you.
In the case of the servers, Mystic takes care of all of the difficult stuff, managing the connections, IP blocking and blacklisting, server threading and messages, logging, etc. Mystic simply allows you to create Python extension that handles only the client's interaction with the server.
The requirements are as simple as having Python 2.7 installed on your operating system. Mystic will automatically detect if Python is installed upon startup, and dynamically embed the language into itself. This means that Python is COMPLETELY OPTIONAL and its not a dependancy required to use Mystic BBS. If it exists, great! Mystic will allow you to use it!
In Windows python27.dll can be copied into the Mystic directory or you can include it into the operating system library path. The Python installation may already do this for you.
In Linux, Mystic looks for libpython2.7.so.1.0
In OSX, Mystic looks for libpython2.7.dylib
MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING THE CORRECT VERSION FOR YOUR PROCESSOR. IF YOU ARE USING 32-BIT MYSTIC YOU MUST BE USING THE 32-BIT PYTHON! IF YOU ARE USING THE 64-BIT MYSTIC THEN YOU NEED THE 64-BIT PYTHON
The answer to this question is not simple, as there are a lot of reasons why 2.X was selected over 3.X. This does not mean that 3.X will not be supported in the future, but it likely wouldn't be until 2.X has become very matured in Mystic. Anyway, reasons:
If you get a "Import error: no module named site" when you DO try to execute a Python script, its because you have Python on your system but it is not completely installed. You'll need to set your environment variables. For example if you have Python installed in C:\Python27:
SET PYTHONHOME=C:\PYTHON27
SET PYTHONPATH=C:\PYTHON27\LIB
SET PATH=%PYTHONHOME%;%PATH%
For BBS modules, you first must import the BBS module:
import mystic_bbs as bbs
This will give you all of the BBS related functions addressable with a bbs. prefix.
(THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS... PLANNING STAGES....
write, writeln, menucmd, getkey, getstr and shutdown are functional only so far)
Of course you get all of the Python stuff plus these functions:
RETURNS FUNCTION NAME PARAMETERS
INPUT/OUTPUT:
(none) clear (none)
(none) cleareol (none)
(char, bool) getkey (none)
(string) getstr (<mode>byte, <fieldsize>byte, <maxsize>byte, <default>string)
(bool) getyn (<text>string, <default>bool)
(none) gotoxy (<x>byte, <y>byte)
(bool) keypressed (<waitTime>?) or separate waitKey function with MS timer?
(char) moreprompt (none)
(none) movex (<x>byte)
(none) movey (<x>byte)
(char) onekey (<keys>string, <echo>bool)
(char,integer) onekeyrange (<keys>string, <min>integer, <max>integer
(none) out (string)
(none) outln (string)
(none) pause (none)
(none) pipe (string)
(none) pipeln (string)
(none) purgeinput (none)
(bool) showfile (<file>string, <baudrate>integer, <pause>bool)
(none) stuffkey (<keys>string)
(byte) textattr (none)
(byte) wherex (none)
(byte) wherey (none)
(none) write (string)
(none) writeln (string)
(none) writexy (<x>byte, <y>byte, <attr>byte, text<string>)
(none) writexypipe (<x>byte, <y>byte, <attr>byte, <pad>byte, text<string>
STRING FUNCTIONS:
(byte) mcilen (string)
(string) mci2str (string)
MISCELLANOUS / UNSORTED:
(bool) access (<acs>string)
(none) appendtext (<filename>string, <text>string)
(byte) getcodepage (none)
(byte) getgraphics (none)
(bool) ignoregroups (<optional on or off>bool) * IF this can be done they do same for codepage, textattr,graphics etc
(string) getprompt (<promptnumber>integer)
(none) hangup (none)
(none) log (<level>byte, <category>char, <text>string)
(none) menucmd (<cmd>string, <data>string)
(byte) node (none)
(none) setprompt (<promptnumber>integer, <text>string)
(bool) shutdown (none)
(none) upgradeuser (<level>byte)
key missing things TODO:
need to pass paramenters to the program somehow
need formatDate and various conversion functions
thisuser, user, msg areas, msg headers, msg text, file areas, file list
ansi buffer,
msg editor, ansi editor, text editor
box, listbox, screen save/restore, extended input
getattr putattr
getmailstats
getmsgbasestats
helper string functions from MPL?