From 46ac39b6f5ae340d6ce5ab930f712e1f3a367b57 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: minima <minima>
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:03:57 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] enhance the blank command

---
 Changes             |  3 ++-
 cmd/Commands_en.hlp | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
 cmd/blank.pl        | 17 ++++++++++++++---
 3 files changed, 35 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 81d3a169..cf77e2f8 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ g1tlh-1 -> g1tlh-15 UNLESS one of these is specifically unlocked.
 5. Make sh/log only show stuff that sh/ann, sh/talk, sh/rcmd doesn't.
 6. Make the scripts look for user and node_default files if there isn't a 
 more specific one.
-7. add the blank command which prints nn blank lines (default 1)
+7. add the blank command which prints nn blank lines (default 1), this cmd
+can also print lines of characters: see help for examples.
 13Sep01=======================================================================
 1. did some work on making talk more intelligent and fixed a>b problem.
 2. fixed a nasty problem on input when being hit with full buffers of 
diff --git a/cmd/Commands_en.hlp b/cmd/Commands_en.hlp
index 159f0b7d..1daf05b2 100644
--- a/cmd/Commands_en.hlp
+++ b/cmd/Commands_en.hlp
@@ -207,7 +207,25 @@ This will send your announcement cluster wide
 Search the help database for <string> (it isn't case sensitive), and print
 the names of all the commands that may be relevant.
 
-=== 0^BLANK <nn>^Print nn (default 1) blank lines
+=== 0^BLANK [<string>] [<nn>]^Print nn (default 1) blank lines (or strings)
+In its basic form this command prints one or more blank lines. However if
+you pass it a string it will replicate the string for the width of the 
+screen (default 80) and then print that one or more times, so:
+
+  blank 2
+
+prints two blank lines
+
+  blank - 
+
+prints a row of - characters once.
+
+  blank abc
+
+prints 'abcabcabcabcabcabc....'
+
+This is really only of any use in a script file and you can print a maximum
+of 9 lines.
 
 === 0^BYE^Exit from the cluster
 This will disconnect you from the cluster
diff --git a/cmd/blank.pl b/cmd/blank.pl
index 7107f2dd..fb559a92 100644
--- a/cmd/blank.pl
+++ b/cmd/blank.pl
@@ -7,8 +7,19 @@
 #
 
 my ($self, $line) = @_;
-my ($lines) = $line =~ /^\s*(\d+)/;
-$lines ||= 1;
+my $lines = 1;
+my $data = ' ';
+my @f = split /\s+/, $line;
+if (@f && $f[0] !~ /^\d+$/) {
+	$data = shift @f;
+	$data = $data x int(($self->width-1) / length($data));
+	$data .= substr $data, 0, int(($self->width-1) % length($data))
+}
+if (@f && $f[0] =~ /^\d+$/) {
+	$lines = shift @f;
+	$lines = 9 if $lines < 9;
+	$lines = 1 if $lines < 1;
+}
 my @out;
-push @out, ' ' for (1..$lines);
+push @out, $data for (1..$lines);
 return (1, @out);
-- 
2.34.1