Xna Console

RELEASED: Xna Console v.1.0 (Apr 05, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:12:29 GMT

Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or even play your game itself indirectly from the relative safety of a console, all while your game is still running.

Since Xna Console is designed to work somewhat like other consoles, it's easy to write your own text based games, or implement an interpreter other than IronPython.

Features:

* IronPython interpreter.
* Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Apr 05, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:12:29 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Apr 05, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:10:18 GMT

{project:description}

Features:

* IronPython as interpreter.
* Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Apr 05, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:09:45 GMT

{project:description}

First release of Xna Console

Features:

* IronPython as interpreter.
* Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:58:12 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or even play your game itself indirectly from the relative safety of a console, all while your game is still running.

Since Xna Console is designed to work somewhat like other consoles, it's easy to write your own text based games, or implement an interpreter other than IronPython.

Features

IronPython as interpreter
Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Basically, you're allowed to do whatever you want with this code. However, I request that you publish back to this website any improvements made to the console, and that any compatible interpreters you may write for public languages also be made available. If you make an interpreter for your own secret language, you don't have to give it away. Also, it would be nice if you let me know what you've used it in, especially if it becomes a successful game ;)

Get Involved

I'm not really working all that hard on this project, so if anyone out there wants to help out and keep it alive, send me a message!

Tentative Future Plans

Ideas I've had for future features:

Have the console render to a texture, so that it can be displayed anywhere in 3d space, such as on a highway billboard, a computer screen, or heads-up-display.
Add colored text handling, so that games like rogue are more interesting. Also, syntax highlighting becomes a possibility.
Text selection, copying, pasting, etc. Maybe even use the windows clipboard if the game is running on a pc.
Somehow add intellisense/word completion. Examples are the tab completion features of IronPython's console, and the source engine console in Portal and HL2.

UPDATED WIKI: How to use Xna Console with something other than IronPython

Shader — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:52:11 GMT

How to use Xna Console with something other than IronPython

If you want to use something other than IronPython for your console, such as IronScheme, Lua, or some other script language you've designed yourself, just follow the example of the PythonInterpreter class. All that's required is that you know 2 methods of the XnaConsole class, Prompt(), and WriteLine().

First, make a class responsible for interpreting the input. Give it a instance of XnaConsole for handling text.

public XnaConsoleComponent Console;

Then, in the constructor, initialize the console with a SpriteFont:

Console = new XnaConsoleComponent(game, font);

Where font is your SpriteFont of choice. Next, you'll need to prompt for some input:

Console.Prompt(Prompt, Callback);

Where Prompt is the text you want to show the user, and Callback is a method you want called with the user's input. This callback needs to be a public void method that takes one string as input, such as:

public void HandleInput(string str);

Then, when you've handled the input, you may want to give a response, via Console.WriteLine():

Console.WriteLine("Response to input");

And then continue prompting for more input. That's all there is to it! If you need any more help, look at the code in PythonInterpreter.cs

UPDATED WIKI: How to use Xna Console with your game

Shader — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:49:25 GMT

How to use Xna Console with your game

This is pretty simple.

Include the files XnaConsole.cs, and PythonInterpreter.cs in your project. PythonInterpreter.cs is only necessary if you want to use IronPython as your interpreter. Also, if you do use IronPython, you will need to reference IronPython.dll and IronMath.dll.
Add "using XnaConsole;" to the using statements where your game class is defined.
Add these lines to your game in the variable declaration section:

PythonInterpreter interp;

and in the constructor or initialize method say:

interp = new PythonInterpreter(this, Content.Load<SpriteFont>("ConsoleFont"));
interp.AddGlobal("game", this);

where "ConsoleFont" is a spritefont of your choice. I usually use Consolas, as can be seen in the example project.

Run your game! That was easy.

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:45:52 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or even play your game itself indirectly, all from the relative safety of a console, even though your game is still running.

Since Xna Console is designed to work somewhat like other consoles, it's easy to write your own text based games, or implement an interpreter other than IronPython.

Features

IronPython as interpreter
Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Get Involved

I'm not really working all that hard on this project, so if anyone out there wants to help out and keep it alive, send me a message!

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Apr 05, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:43:58 GMT

First release of Xna Console

Features:

* IronPython as interpreter
* Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game.

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Mar 16, 2008)

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:40:49 GMT

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Mar 16, 2008)

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:00:03 GMT

UPDATED WIKI: How to use Xna Console with something other than IronPython

Shader — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:50:11 GMT

How to use Xna Console with something other than IronPython

public XnaConsoleComponent Console;

Then, in the constructor, initialize the console with a SpriteFont:

Console = new XnaConsoleComponent(game, font);

Where font is your SpriteFont of choice. Next, you'll need to prompt for some input:

Console.Prompt(Prompt, Callback);

Where Prompt is the text you want to show the user, and Callback is a method you want called with the user's input. This callback needs to be declared like this:

public void HandleInput(string str);

Then, when you've handled the input, you may want to give a response, via Console.WriteLine():

Console.WriteLine("Response to input");

And then continue prompting for more input. That's all there is to it! If you need any more help, look at the code in PythonInterpreter.cs

UPDATED WIKI: How to use Xna Console with something other than IronPython

Shader — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:49:33 GMT

How to write your own interpreter

public XnaConsoleComponent Console;

Then, in the constructor, initialize the console with a SpriteFont:

Console = new XnaConsoleComponent(game, font);

Where font is your SpriteFont of choice. Next, you'll need to prompt for some input:

Console.Prompt(Prompt, Callback);

Where Prompt is the text you want to show the user, and Callback is a method you want called with the user's input. This callback needs to be declared like this:

public void HandleInput(string str);

Then, when you've handled the input, you may want to give a response, via Console.WriteLine():

Console.WriteLine("Response to input");

And then continue prompting for more input. That's all there is to it! If you need any more help, look at the code in PythonInterpreter.cs

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:43:53 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or even play your game itself indirectly, all from the relative safety of a console, even though your game is still running.

Since Xna Console is designed to work somewhat like other consoles, it's easy to write your own text based games, or implement an interpreter other than IronPython.

Features

IronPython as interpreter
Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game. Unfortunately, it won't work very well for ascii games like Rogue yet.

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Get Involved

I'm not really working all that hard on this project, so if anyone out there wants to help out and keep it alive, send me a message!

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:37:51 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or program a text based adventure game, all from the relative safety of a sprite based console.

Currently Xna Console uses IronPython as its scripting language, but it's designed to be easy to implement an interface to your own favorite .Net compatible interpreter. You can even write your own scripting language based on Colossal Cave.

Features

IronPython as interpreter
Some standard console features, such as cursor positioning, command history, etc.
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter, or even a text based adventure game. Unfortunately, it won't work very well for ascii games like Rogue yet.

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Get Involved

I'm not really working all that hard on this project, so if anyone out there wants to help out and keep it alive, send me a message!

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:18:43 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or program a text based adventure game, all from the relative safety of a sprite based console.

Currently Xna Console uses IronPython as its scripting language, but it's designed to be easy to implement an interface to your own favorite .Net compatible interpreter. You can even write your own scripting language based on Colossal Cave.

Features

Characters repeat when keys are held
IronPython as interpreter
Multiline properly handled by IronPython
Cursor can be positioned with the arrow keys to edit anywhere in the string
Command history only includes commands, and not entire output
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Get Involved

I'm not really working all that hard on this project, so if anyone out there wants to help out and keep it alive, send me a message!

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:54:53 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or program a text based adventure game, all from the relative safety of a sprite based console.

Currently Xna Console uses IronPython as its scripting language, but it's designed to be easy to implement an interface to your own favorite .Net compatible interpreter. You can even write your own scripting language based on Colossal Cave.

Features

Characters repeat when keys are held
IronPython as interpreter
Multiline properly handled by IronPython
Cursor can be positioned with the arrow keys to edit anywhere in the string
Command history only includes commands, and not entire output
Easy to implement an alternative interpreter

Getting Started

You can download the project here: Xna Console v.1.0

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

Basically, you're allowed to do whatever you want with this code. In addition, I request that you publish back to this website any improvements made to the console, and that any compatible interpreters you may write for public languages also be made available. If you make an interpreter for your own secret language, you don't have to give it away. Also, it would be nice if you let me know what you've used it in, especially if it becomes a successful game ;)

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:53:04 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or program a text based adventure game, all from the relative safety of a sprite based console.

Currently Xna Console uses IronPython as its scripting language, but it's designed to be easy to implement an interface to your own favorite .Net compatible interpreter. You can even write your own scripting language based on Colossal Cave.

Features

* Characters repeat when keys are held
* IronPython as interpreter
* Multiline properly handled by IronPython
* Cursor can be positioned with the arrow keys to edit anywhere in the string
* Command history only includes commands, and not entire output
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter

Getting Started

First, you'll need to download the project Cannot resolve link: [release:here|1]

Help

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links:

License

UPDATED RELEASE: Xna Console v.1.0 (Mar 16, 2008)

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:51:31 GMT

First release of Xna Console

Features:

* Characters repeat when keys are held
* IronPython as interpreter
* Multiline properly handled by IronPython
* Cursor can be positioned with the arrow keys to edit anywhere in the string
* Command history only includes commands, and not entire output
* Easy to implement an alternative interpreter

UPDATED WIKI: Home

Shader — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:36:08 GMT

Project Description
Xna Console allows you to debug and tweak your game on the fly by providing a simple text interface to an interpreter, such as IronPython. You can change variables, test code, or program a text based adventure game, all from the relative safety of a sprite based console.

Currently Xna Console uses IronPython as its scripting language, but it's designed to be easy to implement an interface to your own favorite .Net compatible interpreter. You can even write your own scripting language based on Colossal Cave.

Getting Started

First, you'll need to download the project Cannot resolve link: [release:here|1]

Help

If you need a place to get started, or want some help, check out the following links: