NAME
    Language::MPI - v0.9 Message Parsing Interpreter

SYNOPSIS
    Processor for the Message Parsing Interpreter text composition language,
    based on the MPI found in MU* online environments, adapted for more
    general semantics.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_Parsing_Interpreter

USAGE
            use Language::MPI;
            $node = new Language::MPI($noderef);
            $node->setvar("varname", "varval");
            $results = $node->parse("tick {set:varname,{time:}} tock");
            $val = $node->readvar("varname");

    MPI assumes an operating environment consisting of a set of nodes each
    of which has a set of named properties. How these nodes and properties
    are stored and structured is up to the application except that:

    * noderefs are perl scalars used by application supplied functions.
    Something with a printable value is encouraged but not required.
    * properties may be identified by and resolve to plain text strings.

    MPI, in the interest of more general usage, expects some support
    subroutines to be supplied by app to access nodes and properties. Should
    any of these not be supplied, errors are trapped to prevent crashing.
    Functions not needing these should still work properly. Should the
    application designer wish, app data to be passed to these callbacks may
    be set into and read from the object by the setvar() and readvar()
    methods.

    mpi_neighbors($thisnode, $pattern, $obj)
        $thisnode is a noderef. $pattern is a string pattern used to specify
        which nodes 'neighboring' the current node are of interest. returns
        list of noderefs;

    mpi_prop($thisnode, $propname, $obj)
        $propname is the string name of a property. returns propval;

    mpi_props($thisnode, $proppat, $obj)
        $propat is a string specifier to a property directory or a subset of
        properties. returns list of propnames;

    mpi_propset($thisnode, $propname, $val, $obj)

INSTALATION
            perl Makefile.PL
            make
            make install

    Or simply copy the MPI.pm file to Language/ under the perl modules
    directory. README and the man file for this package exist as pod data in
    MPI.pm.

STATUS
    Some MPI standard functions incomplete or unimplimented. Testing
    incomplete.

Etc
    This code developed using perl 5.8.8. Might work with perl 5.6.0 or
    older with proper libraries. Uses strict and warning.

    Copyright (c)2007 Peter Hanely. All rights reserved. This program is
    free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
    terms as Perl itself.

MPI primitives
  {abs:num}
  {add:num1,num2...}
  {and:num1,num2...}
  {attr:attribute...,text}
  {count:array}
  {date:}
  {dec:var,dec}
  {default:var1,var2...}
  {delprop:var[,obj]}
  {dice:range[,count[,bonus]]}
  {dist:x1,y2...}
  {div:num,num1...}
  {eq:var1,var2}
  {eval:vars...}
  {exec:prop[,node]}
  {for:varname,start,end,increment,commands}
  {foreach:varname,list,command[,list seperator]}
  {ge:var1,var2}
  {gt:var1,var2}
  {if:condition,true[,false]}
  {inc:var,inc}
  {index:prop[,obj]}
  {insrt:string1,string2}
  {lcommon:list1,list2}
  {le:var1,var2}
  {list:props[,obj]}
  {listprops:props[,obj]}
  {lmember:list,item[,delimiter]}
  {max:var1,var2...}
  {min:var1,var2...}
  {mklist:list items}
  {mod:num1,num2}
  {mult:num1,num2...}
  {ne:var1,var2}
  {neighbors:varname,pattern,code}
  {nl:}
  {not:var}
  {null:...}
  {or:var1,var2...}
  {prop:property,node}
  {secs:}
  {set:var,val}
  {sign:num}
  {smatch:string,pattern}
  {store:val,property[,node]}
  {strip:string}
  {strlen:string}
  {subst:string,old,new}
  {subt:num1,num2...}
  {time:}
  {tolower:string}
  {toupper:string}
  {v:varname}
  {version:}
  {while:condition,command}
  {with:varname...}
  {xor:num1,num2...}
Public object methods
  new(noderef);
    Create new MPI object.

  $mpi->setvar(var,val);
    Sets a variable in the mpi object to a scalar value.

  $mpi->readvar(var);
    Reads a scalar value from the mpi object

  $mpi->parse(string);
    Processes a string for MPI codes

