Links and getlink

A link is not adjacency: a block has to be connected, and only then does it get a name

easyYou need: Number, object and text, Variables and names

A processor cannot see the blocks around it. A container pushed right up against it does not exist as far as the program is concerned — exactly like a container on the far side of the base.

To make a block appear in the program you connect it: click the processor, then the block. A circle is drawn around the processor while you do — that is its range, and there is nothing to connect beyond it. Clicking a connected block again removes the link.

Range depends on the processor

Processor	Range
micro processor	10 tiles
logic processor	22 tiles
hyper processor	42 tiles

The distance is measured from the middle of the processor to the middle of the block, but half the block’s size is added to the range: a large vault’s middle is further away while its edge is nearer, and the game counts by the edge.

Note

Only a block of your own team can be connected, and only a finished one: a construction site does not accept a link. Processor to processor is allowed — it is an ordinary block with properties of its own.

The name comes from the link, not the block

A connected block gets a name like container1, cell1, display1. It is assembled from the block’s name: the last part after a hyphen is taken, and the number is the first free one, starting at one.

Block	Link name
container	container1
memory-cell	cell1
power-node	node1
titanium-conveyor	conveyor1
large-logic-display	display1
power-node-large	node1
metal-wall-2	wall1

The last two rows are a special case: if the block’s name ends with large or with a number, the game takes the part before it. That is why a large power node is a node too, not a large.

Silent failure

The name belongs to the link in this processor, not to the block. The same container will be container1 in two different processors — and if the second one already has another container, it will be container2. A name from someone else’s program means nothing in yours.

The number is the first free one, not the next one: remove the link to container1, then connect a different container, and it becomes container1 again.

@links and getlink

Names are convenient while there are three links. When there are fifteen of them and they change, the program needs to walk the list — @links and getlink are for that.

• @links is how many links the processor has right now, a number.
• getlink is a building by index, starting from zero. An index out of range gives null.

steptick 0

Set0

=

Get link1

=

Get link2

=

Get link3

=

Sensor4

=

 in

@counter0number

amountnullnull

firstnullnull

secondnullnull

thirdnullnull

coppernullnull

Press “step” five times. The example has two connected blocks — a container and a memory cell — so amount becomes two, first turns out to be container1, second is cell1, and third stays empty: there is no link number 2, and mlog has no such thing as an error.

Look at the type column in the table: first and second say building — not a number and not text, but the block itself. sensor works with such a value and does not care whether it came from a link name or from getlink.

Note

The order of links is the order in which they were connected, and it is best not to rely on it: remove and re-add one link and the numbers shift. Walking the list is for when the blocks are alike and numerous; when a block is single and important, it has a name.

When a link disappears

The block is demolished — the link becomes invalid, @links goes down, and sensor by name starts answering null. The program meanwhile keeps running as if nothing happened: checking whether the block is gone is your job.

Put an identical block in the same place and the link comes back with its old name. Put a different one and the name is recomputed for the new block.

Remember

• Adjacency means nothing: a block has to be connected by a click before it appears in the program.
• Range is 10 tiles on a micro processor, 22 on a logic one, 42 on a hyper.
• A link name is the last part of the block’s name plus the first free number.
• The name lives in this processor: in someone else’s program the same name may mean another block.
• @links counts the links, getlink fetches them by index from zero, out of range gives null.

Task

Replace container1 with first in the last line and run the example again: copper stays eighty. To sensor there is no difference between a block that came from a link name and one that came from getlink — it is the same value.

Then type 1 instead of 2 into getlink third: the empty variable becomes the same memory cell as second. One link can sit in three variables at once.