CraftTweaker/MineTweaker3-Web/markdown-tutorials/introduction.md

ZenScript - the MineTweaker programming language

MineTweaker uses the newly developed scripting language ZenScript. The goal of ZenScript is to make it possible for users with no coding experience wo write simple scripts while allowing advanced programmers to efficiently write large projects.

Additionally, it is possible to tightly integrate ZenScript within custom java applications and wire up existing classes with a few annotations and have them made available automatically to the scripting system. In the context of MineTweaker, that means that adding functions and mod support has become much easier than before.

Storing scripts

Scripts in MineTweaker can be stored in two locations:

• In the scripts directory in your minecraft folder
• In the scripts directory in your world folder (the savegame or multiplayer world)

Scripts stored in the scripts directory will be applied to all games hosted by that minecraft instance. That is, all singleplayer games will inherit those scripts, as well as all multipler games hosted by it.

Scripts stored in the savegame directory will be applied to that specific game only. Scripts in the global directory can also be overridden by placing a file with identical name in the savegame scripts directory.

In multiplayer worlds, scripts stored on the connecting clients are ignored. The server will send its scripts to all connected clients and execute them there. A modpack could thus be customed on a per-server basis and be adjusted without having to redistribute a new modpack. Even a reconnect is unnecessary as scripts can be reloaded on-the-fly with the reload command.

Scripts can be stored in these directories in three different ways:

• Single scripts can be stored as a .zs file.
• Multiple script files can be packaged into a .zip file.
• Multiple script files can be stored into a subdirectory (useful for development)

When multiple scripts are stored together into a .zip file or subdirectory, they can access each other's functions. Independent scripts run in a completely different namespace, that is, they won't see each other's symbols or functions.

The order of execution between scripts is undefined. They may be executed in any order. When writing multi-file scripts, it is recommended to store functionality in different functions and have a single main script execute those functions.

This zip file illustrates example contents of a script directory. [INSERT LINK]

General script structure

Scripts follow this structure:

• A list of imports (if any)
• A mix between statements and function definitions

The following example script will add a new recipe:

recipes.addShaped(<minecraft:stick> * 8, [[<minecraft:wood>, <minecraft:wood>, <minecraft:wood>]]);