Part II. Making things · this page as markdown

The house as a form

Your house is a form too. The roof has a type and a pitch, each room a floor, each side its window boxes, and the whole house a shape made of parts. The house's own words change each of them, and only yours. This chapter changes Juniper's house a step at a time, then reshapes it whole.

Read it first #

Before changing a thing, read it. The roof of the main part:

#house-roof-read

(-> (house) :masses first :roof)

It answers

{:type "gable", :axis "x", :pitch 30, :overhang 0.3}

A gable roof, 30 degrees steep, its eaves 0.3 metres past the walls, its ridge running along x.

The roof #

roof takes a map of what to change: :type, :pitch (how steep, in degrees, 5 to 70) and :overhang (how far the eaves reach past the walls, in metres, 0 to 2.5). The types are :gable, :hip, :gambrel, :shed, :flat, :tray and :mansard:

#house-roof

(roof {:type :hip :pitch 35 :overhang 0.6})
(-> (house) :masses first :roof)

It answers

{:type "hip", :axis "x", :pitch 35, :overhang 0.6}
Your house changed.

The read after the change sees the new roof: the steps of a plan run in order, each on the house as the last left it. With a house of several parts, name the part first: (roof :main {:pitch 40}).

Floors, window boxes and paint #

#house-finish

(floor :living :herringbone)
(floor :kitchen :checker "sage")
(window-box :front ["rose" "mustard"])
(paint :door "moss")
(paint :trim "#f6ecd6")

It answers

Your house changed.

(floor room material colour) lays a room's floor: the room as the house names it (:kitchen, :living, :bath, :bedroom in a starter house), a material (:planks, :herringbone, :checker, :hex, :carpet, :flagstone, :concrete) and a colour, either or both.
(window-box side colours) puts flower boxes under the windows of :front, :back, :left, :right or :all, with up to four flower colours.
(paint what shade) paints a part (:door, :siding, :trim, :roof, :shutters, :porch and others), a room's walls (:kitchen), or a thing at home, in a shade by name or as a hex.

A colour by name is one the paint box knows: rose, sage, moss, butter yellow, slate blue and many more.

A porch, a chimney, a storey #

#house-more

(porch 2)
(chimney)
(build-up)

It answers

Your house changed.

(porch depth) puts a porch along the front, 1 to 3 tiles deep. (chimney) puts a chimney through the roof. (build-up) adds a storey on top, with stairs up to it.

Now there is an upstairs, a room of its own can be walled off there: its name, its corner and size in tiles [x z width depth], and which floor:

#house-room

(room :study [6 6 3 3] {:level :upstairs})

It answers

Your house changed.

The names a new room can take are :study, :bedroom, :guest-room, :bathroom, :library, :studio, :nursery, :office, :music-room, :sewing-room, :playroom and :reading-room. A room has to fit on the floor and keep clear of the stairs; when it doesn't, the reply says where the floor runs.

Things in their places #

move moves one of your own toys or things that's out to a spot in tiles, [x z], with a way to face if you like; place stands one that isn't out yet. A toy made through a chat app is out as soon as it's made, so it moves:

#house-place

(defobject bell
  {:name "Bell"
   :verbs {:ring (fn [self who] (say self "Ting."))}})

It answers

The bell is ready.

#house-move

(move :bell [6 10] :facing :west)

It answers

Moved: bell.

place on a thing that's already out is refused, and the refusal says to move it:

Refused#house-place-twice

(place :bell [4 9])

It answers

You have a bell in the garden already. move bell 4 9 moves it. Nothing was changed.

When something won't do #

Not everything can be done: some parts need your kit to have them first, some cost coins, and some don't fit. A step that can't be done stops the plan, and since a plan runs all or nothing, the steps before it are undone too:

Refused#house-all-or-nothing

(roof {:pitch 60})
(hang-lights)

It answers

String lights come on their own and go on any house; they aren't in your kit yet. …Nothing was changed.

The roof is as it was:

#house-still

(:pitch (-> (house) :masses first :roof))

It answers

Read a refusal for what it says to do: here, that string lights are a part to build first. A step that would cost coins is held the same way: the plan changes nothing and says what it would cost, and once your person has agreed, the same plan sent again with confirm true spends it. Through a chat app, that is the confirm field beside plan. Nothing in a plan ever spends coins without that yes.

A value worked out #

The house's words take their values written out, as numbers, text and keywords: (roof {:pitch 40}). A value worked out from a name, or from a word like (weather), needs a second form. check takes a label, the step's name as a keyword, and a map of its fields, holds them to the same rules as when they're written out, and answers what the word takes; apply passes that on:

#house-worked-out

(let [steep (if (= :rain (:sky (weather))) 50 40)]
  (apply roof (check "the roof" :roof {:pitch steep})))
(:pitch (-> (house) :masses first :roof))

It answers

…
Your house changed.

Written with the name straight in the roof's map, the plan is refused, and the refusal says which form to use:

Refused#house-worked-out-plain

(let [steep 40]
  (roof {:pitch steep}))

It answers

That plan's roof works a value out, and the home's words take theirs written out. To work one out, apply roof to what check makes of its fields, with :roof as the step: the Plazmi Lisp book's chapter on the house shows it. Nothing was changed.

The fields are the step's own: :roof takes :type, :pitch, :overhang and :mass; :paint takes :what and :shade; :window_box takes :side and :colours; :floor takes :room, :material and :colour; :draw_design and :make_dance were in chapter 14. Text goes in as text: (apply paint (check "the door" :paint {:what "door" :shade (rand-nth ["moss" "rose"])})).

A worked-out value that doesn't fit is refused by the same rule as one written out, naming the step by its place in the plan:

Refused#house-worked-out-bad

(let [steep (* 40 3)]
  (apply roof (check "the roof" :roof {:pitch steep})))

It answers

Step 2's pitch is a number from 5 to 70 (roof: how steep, in degrees, like 40). Nothing was changed.

The let was step 1, so the roof is step 2. The label given to check is yours to choose; any short text will do.

The whole shape #

house with a name and parts redraws the house's shape. Each part is a map: a mass is a block of the house, with :at its corner and :size its width and depth in tiles, and :stories:

#house-shape

(house "Juniper's"
       {:part :mass :id "main" :at [3 3] :size [7 6] :stories 2}
       {:part :mass :id "wing" :at [10 4] :size [3 4] :stories 1}
       {:part :porch :depth 2})
(map :id (:masses (house)))

It answers

("main" "wing")
Your house changed.

Everything else on the house stays unless the new shape changes it or no longer has room for it: its materials, its roofs' settings, the porch and the chimney. A turret can be a part too, once your kit has one, and so can a porch ({:part :porch :depth 2}) and a chimney ({:part :chimney}).

Try it #

Read your roof's pitch, and set it five degrees steeper, with check.
Put window boxes on every side in two colours you like.
Paint the door a colour chosen at random from three, with check.
Give the house a third part, a small porch-side mass, and read its masses back.

Recap #

Read the house with (house) first; each step runs on the house as the last left it.
roof, floor, window-box, paint, porch, chimney, build-up, room, place, move and house change your own house and things.
A step that can't be done stops the plan, and nothing is kept. A step that costs coins waits for confirm, after your person's yes.
To work a value out: (apply roof (check "label" :roof {:pitch …})).

That ends Part II. Part III is about living alongside other people's programs.