windows.md

Game windows

NetHack writes its data into one of six game windows, which are exposed by the bindings:

1. Message

   All messages and prompts are written to this window.

   What do you want to eat? [bdeqv or ?*]

   Never mind.

2. Status

   The status window, also known as botl (bottom line), contains the name of the character, their attributes and game information.

   Nodehack the Stripling St:16 Dx:13 Co:17 In:8 Wi:13 Ch:8 Lawful lvl:1 $:0 HP:16(16) Pw:2(2) AC:6 Xp:1 T:1

3. Map

   This window holds the current map as it's drawn by the game. The tile ID maps each cell to its respective tile.

4. Menu

   Whenever you have to select items from a menu (for example chest contents, or a selection from the inventory), it gets written to the Menu window. For example, after pressing ? when asked what the character wants to eat:

   Comestibles
   v - an uncursed slime mold
   d - an uncursed food ration
   b - an uncursed lizard corpse
   (end)

5. Text

   This window displays non-interactive text. Executing the #version extcommand or the quest nemesis lair text gets written to this window.

6. Base

   This window is used for absolute movement and also serves as a fallback window.

Note that windows will not update by themselves. You have to fetch each window again after each update (if you need it). Likewise, mutating window data will not reflect on the actual session.

Access

The bindings expose those windows in a game session:

  const statusWindow = nethackSession.getStatusWindow();
  console.log(statusWindow.toString(' '));

Tiledata glyphs

Each map cell contains the parsed glyph data of vt_tiledata:

  const map = nethackSession.getMapWindow();
  const objectsOnMap = map.getObjectGlyphs()
    .map(({ row, col, data }) => ({ row, col, name: data.name }));