[DGD] New to List - Some questions

[Jay Shaffstall]

>3) I mentioned doing development, but I'm stuck with figuring out how to
>actually use this thing. I printed out all the docs I could find, but
>there seems to be a intermediary step between idiocy and competency that
>the documentation doesn't cover.

That's a very good way of putting it!  There is indeed an intermediate 
step, one that I'm going through right now.  At first, I studied the kernel 
mudlib, phantasmal, and melville, to get an idea of how different mudlibs 
were constructed.  I quickly found myself running in circles trying to 
understand everything.

What really helped me, though, was sitting down and writing a driver object 
from scratch (using the kernel mudlib's and melville's driver objects as 
comparisons for different ways of implementing the methods that are 
required, and borrowing some kernel code for getting the stack trace for 
runtime errors).  The comparison process really helped me to get a handle 
on the purpose of each method.

Don't worry too much about the auto object at first.  It's the DGD 
equivalent of Java's Object (i.e. the object everything else inherits 
from), and can be blank until you come up with functionality that must be 
common to all objects.

Also, when you're looking at the kernel mudlib, remember that its purpose 
is to provide a secure environment for multiple coders to work in 
together.  If that isn't part of your game, then much of what the kernel 
does won't be needed for you.

Finally, since I'm a rank newbie at DGD as well, my comments may be 
entirely based on my own misunderstandings, and are subject to correction 
by the more experienced folks here.

Jay

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