LootGrab: HTML5 Game from Triangle Game Jam 2010

Spoilers in the Video! Consider Playing LootGrab first. (As of Sept 2010, Chrome was definitely the best option since Firefox and IE struggled, you can give your smart phone a try too).

2010 Triangle Game Jam game: LootGrab Video on youtube, or LootGrab Video on vimeo.

This year brought changes from the Game Jams of past:

• 2007: Shape Slasher
• 2008: Pixelated Martini Roller
• (2008: Beautiful Pixels Game Jam concept)
• 2009: Robot Love
• 2009: Diving

First, I moved from the Research Triangle and now work at Google, and Adrienne came too (we've worked together on 5 of the game jam projects now). So, we got some fresh blood at Google to join us and ran a game jam in parallel with the 2010 Triangle Game Jam.

Second, instead of using C# we used HTML5 this year:

Third, you can Play LootGrab with a click of a button - ridiculously easy compared to all previous Jams where I didn't even bother giving you the gazillion prerequisites required.

Theme and Game Ideas

The theme this year was, "Placing Blocks". Here is my game concept, which didn't make the cut::

(someone pointed out it would be great from the side too, with ballistic arcs.)

We voted up ideas, and Adrienne's one out: LootGrab is about placing down blocks in a dungeon to influence the hero, instead of controlling the hero directly. The greedy guy runs for the closest loot, food, or exit ... without care for monsters or traps.

We figured we'd need a map editor, the runtime, and perhaps a level sharing system online via AppEngine. I was particularly attached to an idea of allowing user contributed game object definitions. Allow a user to upload an image and a snippit of javascript that defines it's behavior. How cool would a mod-able game jam game be? :) That was stretching a bit far though.

HTML5

HTML5 is a grab bag of new functionality in browsers. Some of it is pretty cool (peer to peer networking, local storage, video and audio tags). We focused on two simple components, canvas 2d to draw and audio for sound effects.

In my day job I'm working to accelerate canvas with GPUs, as are others at Microsoft, Mozilla, and Apple. It's fairly fast even in software, and LootGrab runs fine without GPU acceleration. In fact, it runs on phones pretty well, such as my Nexus One Android phone. That's pretty cool, all we did to support mobile was to make sure we handled low frame rates without changing gameplay. To do that we used fixed time step gameplay logic (tick based), and just run as many ticks as needed to cover the amount of time elapsed.

Our use of canvas is basically clearing it, drawing a pile of sprites (via sub-rectangles of larger images), and also a line to show where the player is moving. Actually, we have a few layers of canvas stacked on top of each other. Theoretically we could have saved performance by not redrawing non animating tiles - just compositing them underneath.

Adrienne took on audio for sound effects, and did run into a bit of trouble. The sound effects were very short, and had to be padded out to longer audio lengths to trigger properly. Also, multiple instances needed to be created in case the sound was played more than once.

Javascript

Several of us hadn't done anything substantial in Javascript before. Certainly not an object oriented game entity system that can factory from user created levels. Some complicated flurry of activity by Glen, Ian, Nat, and Gregg made that happen. The result could be cleaner, but worked well. We have JSON data blobs, e.g. for the tile definitions.

Things I loved:
Need to add extra data to your level components of game object definitons? Perhaps only to particular items? No problem! Just start typing. At runtime it is trivial to just check if the data is there and use it if so.

Writing some code and wish you could hang more data off an object? Just set that value! Check to see if it's === "undefined" later and you can pick up  your special data easily. Object definitions don't have to worry about implementation details of other systems, and those other systems don't need extra book keeping kept in parallel. e.g.:

  try {
    ctx.drawImage(this.img, ...);
  } catch(e) {
    if(this.error_printed === undefined) {
      tdl.log("problem with image " + this.entDefID);
      this.error_printed = true;
  };


Development tools: Logging. Resource load timeline. Immediate mode editor: Hit a breakpoint, and just execute some code at the Javascript console.

Fast iteration time, though C# was great for that too.

Instant continuous "build"! Glen installed an Auto Reload Chrome extension and put the game up on a projector. Check in some code and see the game running it in 20 seconds. ;) Helps to have a game that can play its self.

Libraires such as TDL, and JQuery: some helper code for Javascript. It's not so important what you use, but you definitely want to not worry about the minutia.

Not so great?
I didn't use an IDE that had code analysis, and that's a very convenient feature of MSVC. Though, Ian had good things to say about WebStorm.

Also "classes" in javascript are syntactically very sad, and inheritance to my novice eyes looks messy. And variable "scoping" is dicey.

Debugging is functional and GUI, which is better than what most programmers use around my on linux. But it falls short of a modern debugger such as MSVC with C++ or C#.

Also, deciphering a web page via HTML, script, HTML embedded in script, CSS files, and dynamic changes to styles? ... yikes.

Things for Next Time


Would be nice to have some basics already written:
- Factory that will created entities from JSON data packs
- Cleaner audio solution
- Sprite system for canvas

Smaller teams. We had six on this project, and that's a bit much for a game jam game. Several were first time jammers, and several Javascript newbies, so it did really help to share know-how. But we wasted a lot of time getting started, coming to consensus on implementation choices, and stepping on each other's code.

The End

And now I leave you with some screen shots:

And, the code:
https://github.com/scheib/lootgrab

And a thanks to whoever oryx is, who created the sprites we used:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=8970.0

Edit:
gman has a post too: http://games.greggman.com/game/my-first-game-jam/

Scriptcode: misc batch files and visual studio macros

Here are the random macros I use in Visual Studio and windows batch files. Nothing monumental, but I find them useful often enough.

• scheib.vb
• The general purpose Visual Studio macros I use, particularly useful to me are:
• FindActiveFileInSolution
• HeaderFlip (though the chromium header flip is good too)
• 
  
• addpath.bat
• Eases adding more directories to your path environment variable.
• cmd_here.bat
• Right click any directory or file in windows explorer or a file save/open dialog and get a command prompt at that location.
• copy-certain-files.pl
• Assists automation to copy certain files from one directory to another, e.g. just the .html files but not the images.
• remove_empty_directories.bat
• Cleans up a directory tree to not have empty directories.

The following are useful to have when writing a batch file:

• isadirectory.bat
• isafile.bat
• isemptydirectory.bat

Files can be downloaded here:
http://gist.github.com/582050 - visual studio macros
http://gist.github.com/582036 - batch files

	Imports EnvDTE
	Imports System
	Imports System.Diagnostics
	Imports System.Windows.Forms
	Imports System.Collections.Generic
	'------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	'FILE DESCRIPTION: scheib.vb Vincent Scheib's macros
	'------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Public Module scheib
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentBars()
	'DESCRIPTION: Creates a comment block
	Dim Descr As String
	Descr = "//---------------------------------------------------------------------------" + vbLf
	ActiveDocument.Selection().text = Descr
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentPrefix(ByVal StrPrefix)
	'DESCRIPTION: Inserts this text at the cursor, or if there is a selection, prefixes lines with it.
	'By Vincent Scheib
	Dim win
	win = ActiveWindow
	If win.Kind <> "Document" Then
	MsgBox("This macro can only be run when a text editor window is active.")
	Else
	If Len(ActiveDocument.Selection().text) = 0 Then
	'Insert the text here
	ActiveDocument.Selection().text = StrPrefix
	Else
	'Prefix lines with text
	Dim StartLine = ActiveDocument.Selection.TopPoint.Line
	Dim EndLine = ActiveDocument.Selection.BottomPoint.Line
	Dim i
	For i = StartLine To EndLine
	ActiveDocument.Selection.GoToLine(i)
	ActiveDocument.Selection().text = StrPrefix + ActiveDocument.Selection().text
	Next
	End If
	End If
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentVES()
	InsertCommentPrefix("//VES: ")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentX()
	InsertCommentPrefix("//VES:X ")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentBang()
	InsertCommentPrefix("//VES:! ")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentDebug()
	InsertCommentPrefix("//VES:DEBUG ")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertCommentTodo()
	InsertCommentPrefix("//TODO vscheib ")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub InsertDate()
	Dim ThisMonth As String
	Dim ThisDate As String
	Select Case Month(Now())
	Case 1 : ThisMonth = "January"
	Case 2 : ThisMonth = "February"
	Case 3 : ThisMonth = "March"
	Case 4 : ThisMonth = "April"
	Case 5 : ThisMonth = "May"
	Case 6 : ThisMonth = "June"
	Case 7 : ThisMonth = "July"
	Case 8 : ThisMonth = "August"
	Case 9 : ThisMonth = "September"
	Case 10 : ThisMonth = "October"
	Case 11 : ThisMonth = "November"
	Case 12 : ThisMonth = "December"
	End Select
	ThisDate = ThisMonth + " " & Microsoft.VisualBasic.DateAndTime.Day(Now) & " " & Year(Now())
	ActiveDocument.Selection().text = ThisDate
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub FindActiveFileInSolution()
	'DESCRIPTION: Highlights the currently active document in the solution explorer (toggles file tracking on then off)
	'Get a reference to the Command window.
	Dim win As EnvDTE.Window = DTE.Windows.Item(EnvDTE.Constants.vsWindowKindCommandWindow)
	Dim CW As EnvDTE.CommandWindow = win.Object
	Dim TheStatusBar As EnvDTE.StatusBar = DTE.StatusBar
	Try
	'Input a command into the Command window and execute it.
	CW.SendInput("View.TrackActivityinSolutionExplorer true", True)
	CW.SendInput("View.TrackActivityinSolutionExplorer false", True)
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Found."
	Catch
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Failed. Check that a document active and selected..."
	TheStatusBar.Highlight(True)
	End Try
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	'Sub FindNextLongLine(ByVal bStartAtTop As Boolean = False)
	Sub FindNextLongLine(Optional ByVal bStartAtTop As Boolean = False)
	'DESCRIPTION: Finds next line down from cursor that is too long.
	'By Vincent Scheib
	'CONFIGURE: set the maximum line length
	Dim iMaxLength = 79
	Dim win
	win = ActiveWindow
	If win.Kind <> "Document" Then
	MsgBox("This macro can only be run when a text editor window is active.")
	Else
	' Setup status bar
	Dim TheStatusBar As EnvDTE.StatusBar = DTE.StatusBar
	Dim StartLine = ActiveDocument.Selection.TopPoint.Line
	Dim iLine
	If bStartAtTop Then
	iLine = 1
	Else
	iLine = StartLine
	End If
	Do
	Try ' Try moving to next line
	ActiveDocument.Selection.GoToLine(iLine)
	Catch
	' We have reached end of document
	ActiveDocument.Selection.GoToLine(StartLine)
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Did not find a line too long."
	TheStatusBar.Highlight(True)
	Exit Do
	End Try
	Dim length = ActiveDocument.Selection.TopPoint.LineLength
	If (length > iMaxLength) Then
	ActiveDocument.Selection.SelectLine()
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Line " + iLine.ToString() + " length: " + length.ToString()
	Exit Do
	End If
	iLine = iLine + 1
	Loop
	End If
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub FindFirstLongLine()
	'DESCRIPTION: Finds first line in a document that is too long.
	'By Vincent Scheib
	FindNextLongLine(True)
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub ShowDebugWindows()
	'DESCRIPTION: Opens commonly used debug windows
	DTE.ExecuteCommand("Debug.Watch")
	DTE.ExecuteCommand("Debug.Locals")
	DTE.ExecuteCommand("Debug.Autos")
	DTE.ExecuteCommand("Debug.Threads")
	DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.Output")
	End Sub
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Dim ClipboardString As String
	Sub CopyFilenameToClipboard()
	'DESCRIPTION: Copies the selected solution item or active file's pathname to the windows clipboard
	'By Vincent Scheib
	Dim names As List(Of String) = GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	If (names.Count >= 1) Then
	ClipboardString = names(0)
	Else
	ClipboardString = ActiveDocument.FullName
	End If
	Dim ClipBoardThread As System.Threading.Thread = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf _CopyToClipboard_ThreadProcedure)
	With ClipBoardThread
	.ApartmentState = System.Threading.ApartmentState.STA
	.IsBackground = True
	.Start()
	'-- Wait for copy to happen
	.Join()
	End With
	ClipBoardThread = Nothing
	' Setup status bar
	Dim TheStatusBar As EnvDTE.StatusBar = DTE.StatusBar
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Copied active document filename to clipboard."
	TheStatusBar.Highlight(True)
	End Sub
	Sub _CopyToClipboard_ThreadProcedure()
	System.Windows.Forms.Clipboard.SetDataObject(ClipboardString, True)
	End Sub
	Sub P4add()
	'DESCRIPTION: Adds active document or selected solution items to perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4 add """ + name + """ ) & (pause)", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	Next
	End Sub
	Sub P4revert()
	'DESCRIPTION: Reverts active document or selected solution items in perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4 revert """ + name + """ ) & (pause)", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	Next
	End Sub
	Sub P4delete()
	'DESCRIPTION: Deletes active document or selected solution items in perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4 delete """ + name + """ ) & (pause)", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	Next
	End Sub
	Sub P4edit()
	'DESCRIPTION: Opens active document or selected solution items for edit in perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4 edit """ + name + """ ) & (pause)", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	Next
	End Sub
	Sub P4diff()
	'DESCRIPTION: Diffs active document or selected solution items in perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4 diff """ + name + """ ) & (pause)", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	Next
	End Sub
	Sub P4history()
	'DESCRIPTION: Displays history of active document or selected solution items in perforce
	For Each name As String In GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames()
	Shell("cmd /c (p4win -H """ + name + """ )", AppWinStyle.NormalFocus)
	' pause not performed on this command because it will never return useful error text.
	Next
	End Sub
	Function GetSelectedSolutionItemFilenames() As List(Of String)
	Dim names As List(Of String) = New List(Of String)
	For Each selectedItem As EnvDTE.SelectedItem In DTE.SelectedItems
	Dim Found = False
	Try ' to get project filename
	If Not names.Contains(selectedItem.Project.FullName) Then
	names.Add(selectedItem.Project.FullName)
	End If
	Found = True
	Catch
	Try ' to get project items filenames
	For i As Short = 1 To selectedItem.ProjectItem.FileCount()
	If (selectedItem.ProjectItem.FileNames(i).Length > 0) Then
	If Not names.Contains(selectedItem.ProjectItem.FileNames(i)) Then
	names.Add(selectedItem.ProjectItem.FileNames(i))
	End If
	Found = True
	End If
	Next i
	Catch
	End Try
	End Try
	If Not Found Then
	' Determine if solution is selected and get filename.
	If DTE.Solution.FullName.Contains(selectedItem.Name + ".sln") Then
	If Not names.Contains(DTE.Solution.FullName) Then
	names.Add(DTE.Solution.FullName)
	End If
	End If
	End If
	Next
	If names.Count = 0 Then
	MsgBox("No active document or selcted items. Try turning on the following option:" + vbLf + vbLf + "Tools->Options->Environment->Documents->Show Miscelaneous Files in Solution Explorer")
	End If
	Return names
	End Function
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Sub HeaderFlip()
	'DESCRIPTION: Flips between .h .cpp ... files
	'By Vincent Scheib
	'Searches open documents, the solution file list, and files on disk
	'CONFIGURE: add extensions to flip between here, in the order to flip
	Dim extensions() As String
	Dim extensionsCpp() As String = {".h", ".inc", ".inl", ".hpp", ".cpp"}
	Dim extensionsCs() As String = {".designer.cs", ".cs", ".resx"} ' prefer longer extention match
	' Setup status bar
	Dim TheStatusBar As EnvDTE.StatusBar = DTE.StatusBar
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Searching for a header flip..."
	Dim numExtensionsCpp = extensionsCpp.GetLength(0)
	Dim numExtensionsCs = extensionsCs.GetLength(0)
	Dim activeDoc = ActiveDocument.Name
	Dim activePath = ActiveDocument.Path
	' Determine current extension
	Dim indexForActiveFileExtension As Integer = -1
	' Check Cpp
	For I As Integer = 0 To numExtensionsCpp - 1
	Dim extension = extensionsCpp(I)
	If InStr(activeDoc, extensionsCpp(I)) Then
	indexForActiveFileExtension = I
	extensions = extensionsCpp
	Exit For
	End If
	Next
	' Check Cs
	For I As Integer = 0 To numExtensionsCs - 1
	Dim extension = extensionsCs(I)
	If InStr(activeDoc, extensionsCs(I)) Then
	indexForActiveFileExtension = I
	extensions = extensionsCs
	Exit For
	End If
	Next
	' Check for error
	If indexForActiveFileExtension = -1 Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Could not header flip: don't recognize active file's extension."
	TheStatusBar.Highlight(True)
	Return
	End If
	Dim numExtensions = extensions.GetLength(0)
	Dim numExtensionsToTry = numExtensions - 1
	Dim switchToDocs(numExtensionsToTry - 1) As String
	' Populate list of filenames to switch to
	Dim activeDocExtLen = Len(extensions(indexForActiveFileExtension))
	Dim activeDocBase = Left(activeDoc, Len(activeDoc) - activeDocExtLen)
	For I As Integer = 0 To numExtensionsToTry - 1
	Dim extension = extensions((indexForActiveFileExtension + I + 1) Mod numExtensions)
	switchToDocs(I) = activeDocBase + extension
	Next
	' Try the files:
	For Each switchToDoc As String In switchToDocs
	' Try to switch to already open file (with full path name match)
	If (TrySwitchTo_OpenFile_FullName(activePath + switchToDoc)) Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = ""
	Return
	' Try to open file from projects (with full path name match)
	ElseIf (TrySwitchTo_ProjectFile(activePath + switchToDoc)) Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = ""
	Return
	' Try to open file from disk from same path
	ElseIf (TryOpen(activePath + switchToDoc)) Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = ""
	Return
	' Try to open file from projects (any path)
	ElseIf (TrySwitchTo_ProjectFile(switchToDoc)) Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = ""
	Return
	' Try to switch to already open file (any path)
	ElseIf (TrySwitchTo_OpenFile_Name(switchToDoc)) Then
	TheStatusBar.Text = ""
	Return
	End If
	Next
	TheStatusBar.Text = "Failed to find any file to flip to."
	TheStatusBar.Highlight(True)
	End Sub
	Sub SelectDependentProjects()
	'DESCRIPTION: Step 1 of 2 for setting dependencies on projects
	DependsHelp.SelectedProjects = GetSelectedProjects()
	Dim OutputString As String
	OutputString = DependsHelp.SelectedProjects.Count.ToString
	OutputString += " Selected Projects:" + vbLf
	OutputString += GetStringOfEachProject(DependsHelp.SelectedProjects)
	MsgBox(OutputString)
	End Sub
	Sub SelectDependeeProjects_AssignDependencies()
	'DESCRIPTION: Step 2 of 2 for setting dependencies on projects
	If DependsHelp.SelectedProjects Is Nothing Then
	MsgBox("You must first select projects to have dependencies set on, with SelectDependentProjects macro")
	Return
	End If
	Dim DependentProjs As List(Of EnvDTE.Project) = DependsHelp.SelectedProjects
	Dim DependeeProjs As List(Of EnvDTE.Project) = GetSelectedProjects()
	Dim OutputString As String
	OutputString = "Are you sure you want to set" + vbLf + vbLf
	OutputString += DependentProjs.Count.ToString + " Projects:" + vbLf
	OutputString += GetStringOfEachProject(DependentProjs) + vbLf + vbLf
	OutputString += "As dependent upon" + vbLf + vbLf
	OutputString += DependeeProjs.Count.ToString + " Projects:" + vbLf
	OutputString += GetStringOfEachProject(DependeeProjs) + vbLf + vbLf
	If MsgBox(OutputString, MsgBoxStyle.OkCancel) = MsgBoxResult.Cancel Then
	Return
	End If
	For Each Dependent As EnvDTE.Project In DependentProjs
	For Each Dependee As EnvDTE.Project In DependeeProjs
	Try
	DTE.Solution.SolutionBuild.BuildDependencies.Item(Dependent).AddProject(Dependee.UniqueName)
	Catch ex As System.Exception
	Dim Result As Microsoft.VisualBasic.MsgBoxResult
	Result = MsgBox("Failed to add dependency: " + vbLf _
	+ "Dependent: " + Dependent.Name + vbLf _
	+ "on" + vbLf _
	+ "Dependee: " + Dependee.Name + vbLf + vbLf _
	+ "Error is:" + vbLf + ex.Message + vbLf + vbLf _
	+ "CONTINUE????", MsgBoxStyle.YesNo)
	If Result = MsgBoxResult.No Then
	Return
	End If
	End Try
	Next
	Next
	MsgBox("Done.")
	End Sub
	End Module
	Module HeaderFlipHelp
	'DESCRIPTION: Helper functions for HeaderFlip
	'By Vincent Scheib
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Function TrySwitchTo_OpenFile_FullName(ByVal filename As String) As Boolean
	For Each tryDocument As Document In DTE.Documents
	Try
	If tryDocument.FullName = filename Then
	tryDocument.Activate()
	Return True
	End If
	Catch
	End Try
	Next
	Return False
	End Function
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Function TrySwitchTo_OpenFile_Name(ByVal filename As String) As Boolean
	For Each tryDocument As Document In DTE.Documents
	Try
	If tryDocument.Name = filename Then
	tryDocument.Activate()
	Return True
	End If
	Catch
	End Try
	Next
	Return False
	End Function
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Function TrySwitchTo_ProjectFile(ByVal filename As String) As Boolean
	Try
	Dim item As ProjectItem = DTE.Solution.FindProjectItem(filename)
	item.Open()
	item.Document.Activate()
	Return True
	Catch
	End Try
	Return False
	End Function
	'_______________________________________________________________________________
	Function TryOpen(ByVal filename As String) As Boolean
	Try
	DTE.Documents.Open(filename, "Text")
	Return True
	Catch
	Try
	DTE.ItemOperations.OpenFile(filename)
	Return True
	Catch
	End Try
	End Try
	Return False
	End Function
	End Module
	Public Module DependsHelp
	Public SelectedProjects As List(Of EnvDTE.Project)
	Function GetSelectedProjects() As List(Of EnvDTE.Project)
	Dim projs As List(Of EnvDTE.Project) = New List(Of EnvDTE.Project)
	For Each selectedItem As EnvDTE.SelectedItem In DTE.SelectedItems
	Try ' to get projects
	If Not selectedItem.Project Is Nothing Then
	If Not projs.Contains(selectedItem.Project) Then
	projs.Add(selectedItem.Project)
	End If
	End If
	Catch
	End Try
	Next
	Return projs
	End Function
	Function GetStringOfEachProject(ByVal ProjectsList As List(Of EnvDTE.Project)) As String
	Dim OutputString As String = ""
	For Each proj As EnvDTE.Project In ProjectsList
	If OutputString.Length > 0 Then ' add new line
	OutputString += vbLf
	End If
	OutputString += " " + proj.Name
	Next
	Return OutputString
	End Function
	End Module

view raw scheib.vb hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	call :GOSUB__IS_A_DIR %1
	if errorlevel 1 goto ERROR_not_found
	set path_backup=%path%
	set path=%1;%path%
	echo Updated path. Backed up old path to path_backup.
	goto END
	:==ERROR_not_found
	echo.
	echo. Could not find directory:
	echo. %1
	echo.
	echo. doing nothing.
	echo.
	goto END
	:==GOSUB__IS_A_DIR
	REM INPUT %1
	REM OUTPUT errorlevel == 1 if input is not a dir
	if (%1)==() exit /b 1
	pushd "%~1" 2> nul
	if errorlevel 1 exit /b 1
	popd
	exit /b 0
	:END

view raw addpath.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	:
	: Place this file in your SendTo folder
	: Right click a file or directory, and send to this .bat
	: A cmd window will be opened in the directory of that file.
	:
	if (%1)==() goto ERROR
	call :GOSUB__IS_A_DIR %1
	if errorlevel 1 (
	start cmd /K cd /D "%~d1%~p1"
	) ELSE (
	start cmd /K cd /D "%~f1"
	)
	goto END
	:==ERROR
	echo.
	echo. Designed for a "Send To"
	echo. expected an argument of a file or directory
	goto END
	:==GOSUB__IS_A_DIR
	REM INPUT %1
	REM OUTPUT errorlevel == 1 if input is not a dir
	if (%1)==() exit /b 1
	pushd "%~1" 2> nul
	if errorlevel 1 exit /b 1
	popd
	exit /b 0
	:END

view raw cmd_here.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	#use File::Copy;
	print "Copies a list of files from a dir to another.\n";
	print "\n";
	print "Usage\n";
	print " sourcefilelist.txt source_dir dest_dir\n";
	print "\n";
	print " where sourcefilelist.txt contains a relative filename per line.\n";
	print "\n";
	print " e.g. to copy c:\\test\\subdir\\file.txt to d:\\output\\subdir\\file.txt\n";
	print " place 'subdir\\file.txt' into t.txt.\n";
	print " call this script with arguments 't.txt c:\\test d:\\output'.\n";
	print "\n";
	$filelist_filename = $ARGV[0];
	$srcdir_filename = $ARGV[1];
	$dstdir_filename = $ARGV[2];
	# Check input args
	# does file list exist
	open(filelist_file, "< $filelist_filename") or die "no file $filelist_filename : $!";
	# does file source dir exist
	opendir (srcdir_handle, "$srcdir_filename") or die "no dir $srcdir_filename : $!";
	while( <filelist_file> )
	{
	chop;
	$filetobecopied = "$srcdir_filename/$_";
	$newfile = "$dstdir_filename/$_";
	# flip all slashes to backslashes
	$filetobecopied =~ tr|/|\\|;
	$newfile =~ tr|/|\\|;
	# remove the file name from dest file, just get the path
	($newfilepath) = $newfile =~ m|(.*\\)|;
	print "\n";
	system("echo xcopy $filetobecopied $newfilepath");
	system("xcopy $filetobecopied $newfilepath");
	}

view raw copy-certain-files.pl hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	if (%1)==() goto ERROR_USAGE
	if not exist "%~1" exit /B 1
	if not exist "%~1\" exit /B 1
	exit /B 0
	:== ERROR_USAGE
	echo.
	echo. %0
	echo. usage:
	echo.
	echo. Call with a path name.
	echo. If it is a directory, the ERRORLEVEL will be left 0
	echo. If it is a file, ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	echo. If it does not exist, ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	pause
	exit /B

view raw isadirectory.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	if (%1)==() goto ERROR_USAGE
	if not exist "%~1" exit /B 1
	if exist "%~1\" exit /B 1
	exit /B 0
	:== ERROR_USAGE
	echo.
	echo. %0
	echo. usage:
	echo.
	echo. Call with a path name.
	echo. If it is a file, ERRORLEVEL will be 0
	echo. If it is a directory, the ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	echo. If it does not exist, ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	pause
	exit /B

view raw isafile.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	if (%1)==() goto ERROR_USAGE
	call isadirectory.bat %1
	if ERRORLEVEL 1 exit /B 1
	dir /a-d /s /b "%~1" > nul 2>&1
	if errorlevel 1 exit /B 0
	exit /B 1
	:== ERROR_USAGE
	echo.
	echo. %0
	echo. usage:
	echo.
	echo. Call with a path name.
	echo. If it is a directory, and it is empty, the ERRORLEVEL will be left 0
	echo. If it is not empty, the ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	echo. If it is a file, ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	echo. If it does not exist, ERRORLEVEL will be 1
	pause
	exit /B

view raw isemptydirectory.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	@echo off
	echo.
	echo. This will DELETE DIRECTORIES on your hard drive that are empty
	echo.
	echo. Call this batch file either
	echo. - from the directory you want to clean recursively
	echo. - with the directory name specified as the first parameter
	echo.
	echo. Directories to be deleted will be added to list in a temporary file:
	echo. %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	echo.
	echo. You will be prompted before the list is processed for delete.
	echo.
	pause
	: clear list
	echo.> %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	: search for files to add to list
	echo.
	if (%1)==() (
	set ROOTDIR=.
	) else (
	set ROOTDIR="%~f1"
	)
	for /r %ROOTDIR% %%X in (.) do call :GOSUB_CHECKDIR "%%~fX"
	echo.
	echo. The following directories were found empty and will be deleted
	echo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
	type %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	echo. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
	echo.
	echo. Ready to launch the text file for review / editing
	echo. Any changes to the file will be used after you confirm.
	echo.
	pause
	%TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	:CONFIRM
	echo.
	echo. Are you certain you wish to remove the directories?
	echo. Close this shell, window, or press CTRL-C to quit.
	set RESPONSE=preset-as-no
	set /p RESPONSE=Enter 'yes' to confirm delete:
	if (%RESPONSE%)==(no) goto CLEANUP
	if NOT (%RESPONSE%)==(yes) goto CONFIRM
	: delete directories in list
	echo.
	: sort list first to have sub directories deleted first. avoids errors.
	sort /r %TMP%\toremovedir.txt /o %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	for /F "delims=" %%X in (%TMP%\toremovedir.txt) do call :GOSUB_DELETEDIR %%X
	:CLEANUP
	echo. For your reference, you may wish to copy the file just used:
	echo. %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	echo.
	echo done.
	pause
	exit /b
	:GOSUB_CHECKDIR
	echo checking: %1
	call isemptydirectory.bat %1
	if ERRORLEVEL 1 exit /b
	echo will delete: %~f1
	echo %1 >> %TMP%\toremovedir.txt
	exit /b
	:GOSUB_DELETEDIR
	echo DELETING %1
	rmdir /s /q %1
	exit /b

view raw remove_empty_directories.bat hosted with ❤ by GitHub