A program is text

Assembled from blocks, stored as lines — and that is worth using

easyYou need: Writing it in the game

Under the program window there is an “Edit…” button. It opens a small window with four lines:

• “Clear” — delete the whole program, with a confirmation;
• “Copy to clipboard” — put the program into the clipboard as text;
• “Paste from clipboard” — replace the program with whatever is in the clipboard;
• “Restart” — start running from the first line.

The middle two are the most useful thing in the window, and the least noticed.

A program is stored as lines

Here is the example from the previous lesson:

steptick 0

Set0

=

Operation1

=

*

Operation2

=

+

@counter0number

stocknullnull

doublednullnull

totalnullnull

And here is the same thing copied to the clipboard — exactly what lands in a chat if you press “Copy to clipboard” and paste:

set stock 10
op mul doubled stock 2
op add total doubled 5

One block line, one text line: the instruction’s name, then its fields in order. There is no second language here; it is the same program, just written down.

Note

Names in the text are always English, even if the game shows the labels in your own language: op, not “Operation”. The translation added in version 160 changes the labels in the blocks, not the writing — which is why the text reads the same for everyone, whatever the game’s language.

Ask for help with text, not a schematic

The most common beginner’s mistake in a help chat is sending a schematic (.msch). To read ten lines the other person has to download a file, launch the game, find an empty spot, paste the schematic, click the processor and open the program window.

Text reads right there in the message: from a phone, from a browser, in ten seconds. Copy, paste into the chat. The answer comes sooner simply because helping got cheaper.

Note

A schematic is for when the build matters rather than the code: which blocks stand where, how they are connected, what is configured in them. For reading a program it only gets in the way.

Pasting works both ways

Someone else’s text from a chat goes in with “Paste from clipboard” and is parsed back into blocks. Nothing has to be retyped — neither theirs into yours, nor yours out of your notes.

It is just as handy for keeping drafts: a program in a note on your phone outlives a processor on a map that will one day be demolished.

Silent failure

Pasting replaces the whole program, it does not append. If the processor had something of its own — copy that out first, then paste theirs in.

And remember that any edit starts the program over: variables are cleared, the counter returns to the first line.

Note

If the text contains an instruction your version of the game does not know (text from a newer build), the line does not vanish — it takes its place in the program marked invalid and simply never runs. The place is visible, the meaning is lost.

Remember

• “Edit…” is clear, copy to clipboard, paste from clipboard, restart.
• The clipboard holds plain text: a block line is a text line, names are English.
• Send text to a chat, not a schematic: a schematic is for the build, not the code.
• Pasting replaces the whole program and clears the variables.

Task

Open any processor of yours in the game, press “Edit…” → “Copy to clipboard” and paste the result into your notes. Then put an empty processor next to it and paste the text into that one: you get the same program, assembled from the same blocks.

This is also the cheapest way to move a program from one map to another — and the most reliable way not to lose it.

What to do when the program is pasted and works wrong is in the lesson “The variables window”.