HexStuff: Regular Expressions and Display Iota Hexes

String Pattern Matching with Regular Expressions

HexStuff broadens string handling in Hex Casting by introducing "Regular Expressions". Instead of manually parsing complex strings across multiple operations, casters can define structured search templates directly on the casting stack.

Preparing a pattern begins with "Thompson's Purification", which converts a standard string into an active expression iota. Once formed, casters evaluate text against the pattern using "Haystack Distillation". This action extracts every match discovered within the provided string, breaking each find down into a structured collection of capture groups.

Template behavior can be customized by toggling regex modifier flags before or during execution:

• "Typesetter's Distillation" sets or clears case insensitivity.
• "Orator's Distillation" adjusts newline handling so wildcard tokens match across line breaks.
• "Essayist's Distillation" switches multiline evaluation so boundary anchors align with individual lines.

Visual Formatting with Display Iotas

To make hex output clearer and more readable, the mod adds "Display Iotas" for customized textual presentation. Casters create a baseline element from raw text using "Typewriter Purification" and concatenate sequential blocks using "Typewriter Distillation".

Stylistic tweaks alter how these visual iotas render:

• "Lumière Distillation" colors text using three-dimensional coordinate vectors where components define red, green, and blue values from 0 to 255.
• "Footnote Distillation" embeds contextual hover details, showing specified text or item tooltips from motes and item frames.
• Font styling can be toggled using "Gothic Distillation" for bold weight, "Manutius' Distillation" for italics, "Notetaker's Distillation" for underlined text, "Editor's Distillation" for strikethrough lines, and "Censor's Distillation" for obfuscated glyphs.