was looking through an area and say an item that had a death program on it. thought it was the builder mistaking a sac_prog. what does a death_prog on an item do?

It triggers when a player dies in the room if it's used on a room. If it's used on an item it triggers when the person holding it dies. If it's used on a mob it triggers when the mob dies. At least, that's what the help file entries indicate.

What Conner says is what I remember too. It would be pretty easy to find out by searching for occurrences of, IIRC, oprog_death_trigger and seeing where it gets called.

Just a quick example, one of my builders implemented a "Halo flood" infection. Here is what it looks like:

death_prog 100~
mpe &Cthe carrier explodes and a group of infection forms appear.&W
mpmload 20999
mpmload 20999
mpmload 20999
mpmload 20999
mpmload 20999

Now the intresting bit goes more indepth:

death_prog 40~
mpecho a combat form grows and grows and gets back up to its feet as a carrier form.
mpmload 20997

And my favorite part....

entry_prog 100~
if otypehere(Corpse)
mppurge corpse
mpecho an infection form jumps into a corpse
if rand(40)
mpecho and turns it into a shiraqui combat  form.
mpmload 20998
mpgoto 6300
say purge
else
if rand(100)
mpecho and turns it into a shiraqui carrier  form.
mpmload 20997
mpgoto 6300
say purge
else
endif
endif
endif

I know with out more detail is hard to see whats going on, but you should be able to get the idea of death progs (at least on npc's).

Note, I do think the "if otypehere(corpse_pc)" does work.... so be careful with that if you use it. Been awhile since I've used this however.

**EDIT If you look at the swfote limbo.are file for the arena you can see an example of death_prog in a room, however I don't recall if I've ever seen it work.
*** Edit again: I'm still looking for a death_prog on an item... So far nothing.
ayuri