Silly me, whenever I complain that I don't have time to write, I start finding the will to write again. Maybe that's why I was saying I don't have time to write, because the will was coming back.
The jester quickly explained that he had blowguns for each of them and sufficient darts to knock out many more men than there was in the place. Each dart had been dipped in a sleeping fluid he had gotten from the alchemist. He would provide them with blowguns and the three of them would use them to make sure the sleepers stayed asleep, and then they could take out those who were awake.
Marchan and Trevor agreed to the jester's plan. They didn't know what was going on, but things seemed to be best if they did some work to help the former Lord of the Tower to regain his place. The jester provided them with their own blowguns and they waited for the fire to burn low. It didn't take long and the room was dark. They crept forward and went to each sleeping form and blew a dart into each man's neck. Each man would wake a bit and then fall into a deeper sleep. It did not take long for them to be sure everyone still in the main Hall was not going to wake up.
Then they expored the side rooms. These were very dark, but with the help of a smouldering brand from the fire, they were able to give enough light to each room to be able to see if there were a sleeping form in it and to despatch each such form to deep and dreamless sleep. No one woke as they continued their work. Marchan always seemed to be able to see sleeping figures where the other two were unsure. After what seemed hours, the jester led them into a passageway past the stairs. There were still men awake this way. They seemed to be having some kind of game in a room where the fire still burned brightly.
Trevor, as the only one trained in moving silently, crept forward and peeked into the room they were in. He came back to report that there were six men in the room, apparently playing knucklebones.
The jester said, 'We could take out three with a quick blow each, but then the other three would be upon us. I might be able to reload, but I doubt you too could. On the other hand, I could walk in there, they most likely would not suspect me. But I do not know of anything I might do, once there, to change our chances.'
'How about asking for a couple of them to give you a hand, or something?' asked Trevor.
'They would not lift a finger to help me,' said the jester. 'I am not at all loved.'
'May hap, we could free our people below without alerting these men and then come upon them unawares.' suggested Marchan.
They decided to try going back to the stairs and descending to see what was below. The jester was unsure that this would work, as the gaol doors were loud and would ring out, awaking anyone who had not been drugged.
'We will see,' said Marchan who had his own ideas about opening prisons.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found it quite dark. Marchan led the way, as light seemed to him to flow from themselves and show him their surroundings. Soon they reached a small door past which Marchan was sure there were people but was not sure of anything else.
He slowly turned the door handle, it did not creak or make noise as he did so, but he was sure it would have if he had moved quickly. He opened the door millimetre by millimetre and when it was open a crack he peeked through. Beyond the darkness continued, but he could see, as if lit by themselves, three figures. They were guards, sleeping in their chamber. He continued to open the door slowly and whispered to the other two to wait, then entered and drugged each of the guards. He brought his companions into the chamber and led them beyond to another door. This one was locked. They searched the guard chamber but were unable to find a key.
Marchan found a stout, but long, metal rod. One end had been flattened. This end he slowly wedged under the locked door. Then he took another piece of metal and shoved it under the rod partway along its length. His companions could hear him moving about the room, but could not see him as their ember had gone out. He slowly pulled the outside end of the rod down, and could hear the door bit by bit be lifted off its hinges. His companions heard it also and realising what he might be doing stood by the door to receive it so it would not fall making any loud noise.
The door came off and they laid it aside. Inside the room beyond Marchan could see two figures sleeping beside a covered fire. One of the figures he recognised as Canod. He went in and stirred up the fire and soon had it burning bright enough for the jester to gasp at the sight of the other figure. He said it was the Lord of the Tower, but that he had been beaten badly and lost much weight.
Marchan told them to wake them and left the room again. He went back upstairs and found in a dark room a pot and filled it with water. He returned to his companions and set the pot on the fire to warm. With the warmed water they bathed the wounds of the Lord Roger while they filled him in on the happenings.
I've decided I need to post more short entries again like I did when I started.
With that in mind, I'm posting now. No story this time.
Anyway, I've been working out how to do something that I'm currently calling autoweb. It's a template engine that can use the normal displayed html file as its template. I got the idea after reading the Wicket web page. I'm not sure if Wicket handles what I have in mind or no.
What this does is allow a web designer to grab the page directly off the live site, modify it and give it back. The file is uploaded to the site and bang, the new design is now live. I've actually had cases where the first half of that happened. Unfortunately, since I was the programmer, I had the task of integrating my PHP code into it. Not really interesting work. The idea is something like <span aw_name="variablename">variable text here<span> would have its contents (variable text) replaced with the value of variablename. End of story.
Right now I'm using the SAX XML functions to do the parsing for me and doing it on the fly. The last two days I've figured out (I think) how to do tables, lists, dynamic pick lists (lists that are dynamic on what you can pick) (all of select and radio buttons and checkboxes). The fun part will be if I decide to do caching or "compiling" to PHP.
A rescue
by alan on Mon 5th Mar 2007 12:12AM
Silly me, whenever I complain that I don't have time to write, I start finding the will to write again. Maybe that's why I was saying I don't have time to write, because the will was coming back.
The jester quickly explained that he had blowguns for each of them and sufficient darts to knock out many more men than there was in the place. Each dart had been dipped in a sleeping fluid he had gotten from the alchemist. He would provide them with blowguns and the three of them would use them to make sure the sleepers stayed asleep, and then they could take out those who were awake.
Marchan and Trevor agreed to the jester's plan. They didn't know what was going on, but things seemed to be best if they did some work to help the former Lord of the Tower to regain his place. The jester provided them with their own blowguns and they waited for the fire to burn low. It didn't take long and the room was dark. They crept forward and went to each sleeping form and blew a dart into each man's neck. Each man would wake a bit and then fall into a deeper sleep. It did not take long for them to be sure everyone still in the main Hall was not going to wake up.
Then they expored the side rooms. These were very dark, but with the help of a smouldering brand from the fire, they were able to give enough light to each room to be able to see if there were a sleeping form in it and to despatch each such form to deep and dreamless sleep. No one woke as they continued their work. Marchan always seemed to be able to see sleeping figures where the other two were unsure. After what seemed hours, the jester led them into a passageway past the stairs. There were still men awake this way. They seemed to be having some kind of game in a room where the fire still burned brightly.
Trevor, as the only one trained in moving silently, crept forward and peeked into the room they were in. He came back to report that there were six men in the room, apparently playing knucklebones.
The jester said, 'We could take out three with a quick blow each, but then the other three would be upon us. I might be able to reload, but I doubt you too could. On the other hand, I could walk in there, they most likely would not suspect me. But I do not know of anything I might do, once there, to change our chances.'
'How about asking for a couple of them to give you a hand, or something?' asked Trevor.
'They would not lift a finger to help me,' said the jester. 'I am not at all loved.'
'May hap, we could free our people below without alerting these men and then come upon them unawares.' suggested Marchan.
They decided to try going back to the stairs and descending to see what was below. The jester was unsure that this would work, as the gaol doors were loud and would ring out, awaking anyone who had not been drugged.
'We will see,' said Marchan who had his own ideas about opening prisons.
At the bottom of the stairs, they found it quite dark. Marchan led the way, as light seemed to him to flow from themselves and show him their surroundings. Soon they reached a small door past which Marchan was sure there were people but was not sure of anything else.
He slowly turned the door handle, it did not creak or make noise as he did so, but he was sure it would have if he had moved quickly. He opened the door millimetre by millimetre and when it was open a crack he peeked through. Beyond the darkness continued, but he could see, as if lit by themselves, three figures. They were guards, sleeping in their chamber. He continued to open the door slowly and whispered to the other two to wait, then entered and drugged each of the guards. He brought his companions into the chamber and led them beyond to another door. This one was locked. They searched the guard chamber but were unable to find a key.
Marchan found a stout, but long, metal rod. One end had been flattened. This end he slowly wedged under the locked door. Then he took another piece of metal and shoved it under the rod partway along its length. His companions could hear him moving about the room, but could not see him as their ember had gone out. He slowly pulled the outside end of the rod down, and could hear the door bit by bit be lifted off its hinges. His companions heard it also and realising what he might be doing stood by the door to receive it so it would not fall making any loud noise.
The door came off and they laid it aside. Inside the room beyond Marchan could see two figures sleeping beside a covered fire. One of the figures he recognised as Canod. He went in and stirred up the fire and soon had it burning bright enough for the jester to gasp at the sight of the other figure. He said it was the Lord of the Tower, but that he had been beaten badly and lost much weight.
Marchan told them to wake them and left the room again. He went back upstairs and found in a dark room a pot and filled it with water. He returned to his companions and set the pot on the fire to warm. With the warmed water they bathed the wounds of the Lord Roger while they filled him in on the happenings.
And I think I'm going to stop for tonight.
wicket it
by alan on Fri 23rd Mar 2007 8:52PM
I've decided I need to post more short entries again like I did when I started.
With that in mind, I'm posting now. No story this time.
Anyway, I've been working out how to do something that I'm currently calling autoweb. It's a template engine that can use the normal displayed html file as its template. I got the idea after reading the Wicket web page. I'm not sure if Wicket handles what I have in mind or no.
What this does is allow a web designer to grab the page directly off the live site, modify it and give it back. The file is uploaded to the site and bang, the new design is now live. I've actually had cases where the first half of that happened. Unfortunately, since I was the programmer, I had the task of integrating my PHP code into it. Not really interesting work. The idea is something like <span aw_name="variablename">variable text here<span> would have its contents (variable text) replaced with the value of variablename. End of story.
Right now I'm using the SAX XML functions to do the parsing for me and doing it on the fly. The last two days I've figured out (I think) how to do tables, lists, dynamic pick lists (lists that are dynamic on what you can pick) (all of select and radio buttons and checkboxes). The fun part will be if I decide to do caching or "compiling" to PHP.