General Program Troubleshooting and questions

hi! im working on a project that is on a scale that ive never attempted before, and while it may not seem like very much to some of you, it is to me, so i would appreciate if i could post my questions and troubles in one big post so i dont spam "ask a pro" with small posts. my project is to hook up just about everything in my base to an openp terminal bridge so i can access everything in my base from anywhere in the world. you may have seen my post on here a while ago about a open blocks radio controller, and the success of that has inspired me, so here is my first question; would it be smarter in the long run to have my systems connected to the bridge through a wired modem network and just have them sort out the events they dont need? or would it perhaps be smarter to have a computer with a wireless modem that routes all the commands to different computers also on wireless modems?

definitely wired networks, its definitely more efficient in terms of server resources, its much more scalable, and its easier to implement :)/>

thanks, thats what i thought, and if i need to later on, i can always stick a computer with a wireless modem on the bridge later on if i need far away computers to be accessible too

yeah, I'd be more inclined to add it to the original computer, but yeah.

is it possible to have a range of numbers instead of an exact number when comparing? something like

if var == 1-10 then
  print("Hello World")
end

instead of

if var == 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 then
  print("hello World")
end

You can use inequalities:

if var >= 1 and var <= 10 then

thanks, would this also include decimals?

of course

if var >= 3.1 and var <= 3.15 then
  print"it might be pi!"
end

ok, im having some more trouble with tables, for some reason this works perfectly:

scan = peripheral.wrap("top")
bridge = peripheral.wrap("down")
m = peripheral.wrap("left")
local arg = {...}
if not arg[1] then
  for data, info in pairs(scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")) do
	print(data)
	print(info)
	os.pullEvent()
  end
end
playerData = scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")
if arg[1] and not arg[2] then
  for data, info in pairs(playerData[arg[1]]) do
	print(data)
	print(info)
	os.pullEvent()
  end
end
playerData2 = playerData[arg[1]]
if arg[2] then
  for data, info in pairs(playerData2[arg[2]]) do
	print(data)
	print(info)
	os.pullEvent()
  end
end

but this just returns" attempted to index nil" at line 5

scan = peripheral.wrap("top")
bridge = peripheral.wrap("bottom")
playerData = scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")
playerData2 = playerData[armor]
boots = playerData2[boots]

here is a list of everything in "armor" that i got from using the first program i showed https://www.dropbox....26_00.10.09.png
sorry for dropbox link, it was the only thing i could think of that i could use quickly
edit: broken link

hunter239833, on 26 March 2014 - 04:12 AM said:

ok, im having some more trouble with tables, for some reason this works perfectly:

playerData2 = playerData[armor]
boots = playerData2[boots]

this is because its looking for the value of the armor variable, which doesn't exist, you meant to use either of these

playerData2 = playerData["armor"]
boots = playerData2["boots"]

or

playerData2 = playerData.armor
boots = playerData2.boots

theoriginalbit, on 26 March 2014 - 04:14 AM said:

hunter239833, on 26 March 2014 - 04:12 AM said:

ok, im having some more trouble with tables, for some reason this works perfectly:

playerData2 = playerData[armor]
boots = playerData2[boots]

this is because its looking for the value of the armor variable, which doesn't exist, you meant to use either of these

playerData2 = playerData["armor"]
boots = playerData2["boots"]

or

playerData2 = playerData.armor
boots = playerData2.boots

this worked, though it confuses me, i wan under the impression that you pulled something out of a table by using something like table[key]

hunter239833, on 26 March 2014 - 04:25 AM said:

this worked, though it confuses me, i wan under the impression that you pulled something out of a table by using something like table[key]

yes you do, however that syntax would require a variable named `key`

local foo = { bar = 1 }

--# this only works with strings that have no spaces, you cannot do numbers
print( foo.bar )

--# this works with any data type, you can do foo[1], or foo[true], or foo[{}], etc. strings with spaces must be this way (or the way below) foo["hello world"]
print( foo["bar"] )

--# functionally this is the same as above, except the key is in a variable
local key = "bar"
print( foo[key] )

ok, im going to bed now, so im just going to leave this here and check tis tomorrow after school.
i undrstand now,
this is going to be a part of the network im making, but for now its just a proof of concept
it checks if im looking at the the computer (everytime i run the player info checker im looking at the computer obviously so i just used it)

scan = peripheral.wrap("top")
bridge = peripheral.wrap("bottom")
while true do
  playerData = scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")
  lookingAt = playerData.lookingAt
  looking = playerData.isLookingAtBlock
   if lookingAt.y == -1 and lookingAt.z == 0 and lookingAt.x == 0 then
	 bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is a computer")
  else
	bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is not a computer")
  end
end

and it works, but if i am not looking at a block the x,y, and z values become null and i get a crash, so i change it to this:

scan = peripheral.wrap("top")
bridge = peripheral.wrap("bottom")
while true do
  playerData = scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")
  lookingAt = playerData.lookingAt
  looking = playerData.isLookingAtBlock
   if lookingAt.y and lookingAt.y == -1 and lookingAt.z == 0 and lookingAt.x == 0 then
	 bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is a computer")
  else
	bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is not a computer")
  end
end

but it immediately skips to else no matter what im looking at. theoretically it should work, if there are coords for a block im looking at, and they match the computers coords, then print the message, but alas no

edit: i can also use isLookingAtBlock, which returns a true or false depending if im looking at a block, but it has the same end effect, locking into else. i will post it for reference anyway:

scan = peripheral.wrap("top")
bridge = peripheral.wrap("bottom")
while true do
  playerData = scan.getPlayerData("hunter239833")
  lookingAt = playerData.lookingAt
  looking = playerData.isLookingAtBlock
   if playerData.isLookingAtBlock and lookingAt.y == -1 and lookingAt.z == 0 and lookingAt.x == 0 then
	 bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is a computer")
  else
	bridge.clear()
	bridge.addText(6, 6, "this is not a computer")
  end
end

nevermind, forgot one simple cap, works now