Player Function (simple parsing shortcut)

[ShaneBeee]

This discussion is to suggest the introduction of a player function, which basically could be used as a shortcut for parsing.
Simply enter a player's name or uuid, and it will return a player object (or possible an offline player object if said player is not online)

ie:

send "blah" to player("ShaneBee")

or

send "blah" to player("some-uuid-here")

[Itzdlg]

In my opinion, I think that this is nice but unnecessary. If player's want this, they could add the function themselves. If we added this, then adding functions for every type would make more sense. It's also useless because Pyon said we might be removing functions, and just having custom syntax. It's also just as much typing as "ShaneBee" as player, so it doesn't change much.

[AyhamAl-Ali]

Removing functions?? I haven't heard about this but my first impression it is a very bad idea! many users depend on functions A LOT, it is just like methods unless there is another explanation for what you/snow said.

[FranKusmiruk]

Even though we are indeed planning on replacing functions at some point, it isn't not going to happen anytime soon and considering the amount of users that try to parse player names or uuids, I think it is adequate to have this utility function. That being said, having the parsed part of the parse expression be optional was also considered as an option and I am not against it, I'll let users decide through votes what they think is the best choice.

[AyhamAl-Ali]

Just wondering why replacing functions? and what will be the replacement?

[TheLimeGlass]

Not replacing functions as a whole. Replacing the default functions.

[TPGamesNL]

No, its about replacing functions as a whole, or at least remake their syntax

[AyhamAl-Ali]

This can be useful for many, I myself use parsing a lot on players and it don't like it, this will replace this long syntax %(string|uuid)% parsed as [offline]player which will save some time and effort when used a lot.

[TheLimeGlass]

The function is very ambiguous since there is offlineplayers. What happens if the player isn't online? It just returns nothing? Will you need to have offlinePlayer("Notch")? I think "ShaneBee" as player is a good addition. You could even go as far as removing the word parsed in the parse expression and just have shorthand as. That would be simplistic and I like that alot more now that I think about it.

[bluelhf]

I think this is a good idea, but since the current plan is to slowly replace functions as a concept (with reflect-like custom syntax I believe), I also think it'd be better to have syntax like player "Notch" or player "4aa08588-1d1e-4d75-bd50-433c95ea9fb3", or even entity "7fce36f1-1e14-4203-b8c9-ed44b74c5752"

[AyhamAl-Ali]

I like the idea of player and entity expression (player|entity) [from] %string%