Calling Miniscript Function from Unity C# code?

utwsoft

Is this possible somehow via invoking the interpreter or something?
I'd like to simply check if a Miniscript function exists, and call it, possibly with parameters, and get a return value back in C#.
I would prefer that to be done synchronously, but an asynchronous solution with forcing script execution and using Coroutines is not out of reason.

I'm aware of the event message pump (and would prefer not to use this if possible), but I couldn't figure out a few things :

Getting a return value back to C#
Getting it to act synchronously.
I haven't tried asynchronously with Coroutines yet.

I suppose getting a return value to C# can be an Intrinsic with callingMethodName and result, but that doesn't seem like the most elegant solution.

jstrout

It sounds like you've seen the MiniScript Integration Guide — if not, that's the primary resource for questions like this.

An event pump is the "standard" design, and you'd get results back either through an intrinsic (as you said) or via a global variable. Or, if it suits your needs, you could have the script print the result, and catch that via the standard output mechanism.

Do you control these scripts you're calling, such that you can be certain they never take more than X milliseconds to complete? If not, then you really need to do this asynchronously. Otherwise a badly-behaved script will lock up your whole game.

What's the structure of the MiniScript code you're calling into? Is it one script per "function" you need, or a library of functions you're going to call on an as-needed basis? Or (worst case) is it a script that will actually be running and doing its own thing, when your C# code suddenly wants to invoke a function in it?

utwsoft

I plan to have full control over the scripts implemented for these C# function calls. I don't intend for the scripts to be intensive (just a few checks), though, I can see how not supporting async might be bad.

I had similar/related questions back in March.
A use-case is (going back to a game tutorial walkthrough implementation).

C# 
OnClickHandler(clickedTile)
{
     if (!miniscript.ShouldProcess(clickedTile))
         return;
}
Miniscript
allowClick = function(args)
{
   if (args.tileX == 1 && args.tileY == 1)
       return true

   return false
}

jstrout

OK. Well, an event pump is the standard, most future-proof way to do what you're asking.

However if you want, you could try TAC.Machine.ManuallyPushCall. You'd need to get a reference to the compiled function, e.g., append a main program that returns all the functions you care about as a map (remember to use @ so that you're returning the function references, and not accidentally calling the functions!). And then you can call ManuallyPushCall to push one of these onto the call stack, with arguments. You can even say where in the previous (global, in your case?) context you want the result to be stored, e.g. pass a Value string of "_result" and then you can find the result in a global named "_result" once the function is done — you'll need to run the machine yourself (see how Interpreter does this) until the new context pops.

utwsoft

Thanks for the response. I didn't end up trying that out because it was enough to deter me from attempting it and implementing my message pump the right way with asynchronous handling. I have it working for the most part now.