MUD languages

[Chris Gray]

[Shawn H:]
:I'd first encountered this free user programming idea when I came across a
:post of yours on the ng's.  Could you dispense a smidge of the
:fundamentals so I know what your approach is about?  I've got a notion in
:mind, but I'd rather know where you're coming from before I make
:assumptions.  From what I've thought about it, I was wondering how "free"
:it can be.  Now you say that unvalidated user-objects can't affect
:validated objects (sensible).	Does that mean that every object the user
:programs has to be run by an admin before it is allowed in the game?  Or is
:there a set of "safe" constructs that anyone can use and objects using only
:those have no need for validation?  This is of interest for me, since I'm
:embedding a language into the world that will allow complete manipulation
:of all aspects of it, and the whole place becomes richer if anyone can come
:along and implement something cool.  Security becomes the biggest issue,
:methinks, and with my language (at the moment, I intend to use Perl) there
:are a lot of nasty things users shouldn't do that are perfectly legal if
:you're an admin.

It seems that everyone with big ambitions (most of us?) wants to have a
programming language within the MUD. Makes sense to me. Lots of discussions
in the newsgroups have talked about using some standard pre-existing
language (Perl, Tcl, etc.), but I don't know of anyone who has actually
done that. Anyone know of a MUD that does? Is there some real reason
why not, or is it just a case of NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome?

For myself, I wanted a strongly typed language so that I don't have to
do much run-time type checking. I also want the language to have only
those constructs that are useful in the MUD, so that arbitrary wizards
can't go doing shell commands, etc.! Also, my compilers background makes
a custom language not a big problem for me. Actually, I find spending a
few days knocking off a new language (of the right style!) relaxing. I
guess I'm just wierd!

--
Chris Gray   cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA