Maximus BBS

Documentation for Maximus BBS — Next Generation

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Format Operators

Formatting operators for padding, alignment, and character repetition

Formatting operators control how the next value is displayed. They are useful for creating aligned columns, padded fields, and repeated characters in prompts and display files.

The “next value” consumed by a pending format operator can be any of:

Note: ## is always a two-digit number (00–99), or a |XY info code that resolves to a number (e.g. |TH for half-screen width). When an info code is used, it is expanded first, and if the result is a valid number between 0 and 99 it is used as the width parameter.

Padding & Alignment

These operators affect the next |XY code that follows them:

Operator Description
$C## Center the next value within ## columns (spaces)
$L## Left-pad the next value to ## columns (spaces)
$R## Right-pad the next value to ## columns (spaces)
$T## Trim the next value to ## characters max
$c##C Center within ## columns using character C
$l##C Left-pad to ## columns using character C
$r##C Right-pad to ## columns using character C
\|PD Prepend a single space to the next value

Immediate Output

These produce output directly without needing a following code:

Operator Description
$D##C Duplicate character C exactly ## times
$X##C Duplicate character C until cursor reaches column ##

The difference between $D and $X: $D always produces the same number of characters regardless of cursor position, while $X fills up to a specific column — so the number of characters depends on where the cursor currently is.

Examples

|UN              translates to: "Kevin Morgan"
$R30|UN          translates to: "Kevin Morgan                  "
$C30|UN          translates to: "         Kevin Morgan          "
$L30|UN          translates to: "                  Kevin Morgan"
$D30-            translates to: "------------------------------"
$X30-            translates to: "------------------------------"  (from col 1)
|UN$X30.         translates to: "Kevin Morgan.................."
$c30.|UN         translates to: ".........Kevin Morgan.........."
$r30.|UN         translates to: "Kevin Morgan.................."
$l30.|UN         translates to: "..................Kevin Morgan"

Using Info Codes as Width

Info: Anywhere a format operator expects a two-digit ## width, you can substitute a |XY info code instead. The code is expanded first, and if the result is a number between 0 and 99 it is used as the width. If the code does not resolve to a valid number, the $ is emitted as a literal character (the same fallback as a malformed operator).

This is particularly useful with the terminal geometry codes |TW (terminal width), |TC (center column), and |TH (half width), which always produce two-digit numeric values. Any other info code that happens to return a number will also work — for example |US (screen length in lines) or |TL (time left in minutes, when ≤ 99).

The parser consumes |XY (3 characters) in place of ## (2 characters); everything else in the operator syntax stays the same. For operators that take a fill character ($r, $l, $c, $D, $X), the fill character follows the info code directly.

$R|TW|UN         right-pad user name to terminal width (space fill)
$r|TH-|UN        right-pad user name to half-width using '-'
$C|TW|BN         center BBS name within terminal width
$D|TW=           draw '=' across the full terminal width
$D|TH-           draw '-' for half the screen width
$X|TW.           fill with '.' up to the terminal width column
$T|TH|MD         trim area description to half-screen width

Inline String Literals

Info: The |{text} syntax lets you supply an arbitrary literal string as the value for a pending format operator. Everything between { and } is treated as the text to format. If no closing } is found, the | is emitted as a literal character.

This is useful when you want to pad, center, or trim a fixed string without needing to define an info code for it:

$R30|{Welcome champ!}       "Welcome champ!                "
$C30|{MENU}                  "            MENU              "
$c40=|{[ Main Menu ]}        "============[ Main Menu ]=============="
$T10|{Hello, World!}         "Hello, Wor"
$r|TH-|{Section Title}       pad to half-width using '-'

Inline strings work anywhere a format operator expects its next value, and can be freely combined with info code widths in the same expression.

Literal Dollar Sign

To display a literal $ character, use $$:

Price: $$5.00

Displays: Price: $5.00

See Also