AI Equivalent of Perl Expression $/="\0"

[rhg]

Hi. I think AI3 is a great scripting platform and have been taking a real liking to it, especially the TCP/UDP functionality.

From all of the great contributions here on socket server implementation I thought I might try to setup a simple socket server to play with flash...not a "chat server"...although that is neat it has been done to death IMHO. I am actually looking for a different type of I/O functionality.

Flash uses the XMLSocket Object to connect to a socket server. I have successfully modified the server.au3 (Larry's orginal implementation [Thanks Larry]) and can successfully connect to it, and send messages from Flash to the socket server. My problem is getting them back to Flash.

Here is an exmaple of what I am doing/trying to do:

Flash sends: <vectorObj currentx="1" currenty="10" />

Server sends: <vectorObj newx="45" newy="200" />

Flash parses this message and applies the new incoming vector properties to a vector object...say placement of a rectangle on the stage and then moving the objects anchor to the new X/Y coordinates.

I know the flash movie works as I d/l'ed a 15 line Perl server script and verified it is working properly. Problem is I do not know hardly any perl at all as my background is batch/Basic/VBScript and some AS1/2, and the perl server is a chat implementation that just echo's whats incoming and forwards to all other connected clients vs what I am proposing. Plus I thought it would be fun to do in AutoIt, lol.

Soooo....after about a week of reading, trying, and failing, I finally found what I think is the problem:

Flash will listen and buffer incoming data until it receives an "empty byte" at which time it processes the incoming data. This empty byte is represented by $/="\0" in all the Perl/Python/Java examples I have found. So, what I have tried is to append that termination string from the $input box data, gathered in the server's while 1 loop when I click on Send. I have tried:

$trm = "\0" , Asc("NUL"), Chr(0), Chr(13)&Chr(10), Asc("CR"),Asc(" LF"), Asc("CR")&Asc("LF"), @CRLF

For the life of me I have no idea what $/="\0" actually is in Perl other than "empty byte" or "null byte"....not sure if there is a difference.

Anyways, this was just meant to be fun but I feel like I am so close and I would love to play around with Flash and a simple socket server on localhost. I'm on vacation for another week so hoping to maybe get this working. I know this isn't what AI is for but I am sure it can do the job well enough to 'play around'.

Thanks for reading my *very* long post, and for any advice.

[rhg]

No takers? Oh well, was worth a shot. If I get it working I will post the code.

AutoIt is still great anyways.

[evilertoaster]

dont know for sure but you might try just "" thats usually autoit for nothing ....

[rhg]

Yes, is AI for 'nothing', but is not the same as 'empty byte'. ASCII Code 0 (zero) is 'null' or empty byte..not the same as 'empty string'. For some reason nothing I have tried is working.

Hm. Also tried "\r\n" and "\n" and ASCII equivalents, but nada. Have I ran into some AI limitation or my own limitation?

Thanks

EDIT: Has anything to do with the way the data is handled from the GUI input box?

Global $trm = " " ; or "" or Chr(0)...like I said I have tried them all I think.

$ret = DLLCall( "au3xtra.dll", "int", "TCPSend", "int", $ConnectedSocket, "str", GUICtrlRead($input) & $trm) ;<--

I have tried also:

$strStr=GUICtrlRead($input)

$strStr=$strStr&Chr(0)

$ret = DLLCall( "au3xtra.dll", "int", "TCPSend", "int", $ConnectedSocket, "str", $strSrt) ;<--

Edited February 8, 2006 by rhg

[rhg]

Ah ok...I will update to the latest beta and replace the DLLCall's with the new functions...Thanks for the tip Larry.

Will post back soon enough (I hope )

[rhg]

Larry, as expected your instruction is flawless sir.

Steps:

1) Download and installed the latest AI+SciTe Beta, AI+SciTeUpdate and v108 Beta

2) Copied and pasted the code from the AutoIt help section on TCPSend to SciTe. ( Seemed simpler than editing the individual lines.)

3) I am still working my way around in SciTe as it seems I had to use the Beta Compiler directly from the Programs menu in order to compile. (Start->Programs->AutoIt v3->beta->Compile Beta) Trivial, but worth mentioning I guess.

A non-trivial problem though...I am recieving an error when SOCKET2IP() UDF is triggered upon client connection for the line. The error returned in SciTe:

C:\AU3\fla_sockets.au3(142,29) : ERROR: DLLStructDelete(): undefined function.

DLLStructDelete($sockaddr)

For some reason (maybe b/c is Beta?) I had to comment that entire function out including all references to it in the UDF for it to 'act' properly and not error out. Not that I need it to work as I am on just testing on localhost, but I am curious if I haven't screwed something up with installing Beta or just being a n00b.

Again thanks for the tip! Made my day to see it work finally. You guys are awesome.

EDIT: I *did* try DllStructDelete vs DLLStructDelete but that did not seem to help either. (DllStructDelete is what is in the Help File.)

Edited February 8, 2006 by rhg

[big_daddy]

A non-trivial problem though...I am recieving an error when SOCKET2IP() UDF is triggered upon client connection for the line. The error returned in SciTe:

C:\AU3\fla_sockets.au3(142,29) : ERROR: DLLStructDelete(): undefined function.

DLLStructDelete($sockaddr)

You can replace:

DLLStructDelete($sockaddr)

With this:

$sockaddr = 0

[rhg]

@Larry

Roger..I am on it.

@big_daddy

Thanks for the tip.

[kned]

is there now a answer how to make a empty byte ?