Its nice to be back

[Nathan Yospe]

On Thu, 13 Feb 1997 coder at ibm.net wrote:

:On 12/02/97 at 05:07 PM, Nathan Yospe <yospe at hawaii.edu> said: >   Well,
:we've been down a good four months now, or so, haven't we? 
:
:Welcome to my humble abode of quaking REXX stripts and tremulous mailers. 

*chuckle* Don't remind me... I'm trying to deal with a similar problem for
a webserver database system's fanmail linkers. Not the REXX scripts...
wouldn't touch the stuff... but the mailers.

:>I
:>can't wait to see what you guys have cooked up in the downtime. As for my
:>own project, I have gone full hybrid: a fully compiled, driver free MUD
:>with a fully functional, partial compile, OO language framework, which,
:>though clumsy, still looks a heck of a lot better than the two commercial
:>equivalents I've used. (QuakeC and 4D internal) 
:
:Unghh.  Care to define, "full hybrid" and, "driver free"?  

Internal system (core) is hardcoded, but entirely modular. The process
system is maybe 60 lines of code, and the entire configuration of the MUD
can be controlled from there. It can become combat/noncombat/talker/RP/etc
at the replacement of a module... I have seven socket modules for players
in place... Characters (standard combat MUDish) are one of them, and
synchronous with Items, another fundamental of that system. As a test of
the modularity, there is an imbeded space invaders game, a chess challenge
room, a bridge tournament, the creation engine, and a space combat range
based game available to players. When I say "driver free" I mean that the
MUD is primarily a C++ library of MUD support classes, with a simple, but
tremendously powerful, MUD built out of that library... but it is free of
the code bloat typical of totally abstracted driver/lib systems. With the
internal programming language as powerful as it is, it doesn't suffer for
flexibility.

:I've been looking thru PIKE recently as a possible stealable language
:base.  Its not really what I want (I *really* like the fact that my
:current effort is type-less), but it has a lot of promis.  If I really
:start feeling sick enough I may even go as far as making the language a
:shell ala MUQ, and then allow any number languages to be (optionally)
:hooked in to the running server.  Its cute, its neat, and I'm not sure its
:worth anything.

Heh. I don't care for the I/O constructs for languages on a MUQ... but
then, I don't like free user programming in the game proper, either. I
prefer a core programming team, with protected relevant programming only
for builders. Of course, I did inline the compiler into the MUD, so the
highest level people can access the C++ engine from within the game.

:>...I've also extended
:>polymorphism a bit... anything can be composed of any number of
:>components, and any action that can be performed on any tangible can be
:>attempted on any other tangible, likewise with locations and intangibles.
:
:Err, single inheritance tree and/or lotsa friend functions?  Or just
:attempted logical  resolution of any method on any object even if there is
:not a direct definition for that method there?

First and third. Complex (not single) inheritance tree handles 99.9% of
the cases, natural language interpreter handles whatever else happens
along. All tangibles are inherited from physical, which is the operated
target for any targeting Action. Most extended classes have a Reaction,
which is the member function of the class checked by the action.

:>   Again, its nice to be back. I'll be posting regularly, again. I look
:>forward to hearing from the rest of you soon.
:
:The old lot are trickling back in at about one or two a day so far. 
:Unfortunately I don't have NG access at work now <sigh> so my recruiting
:efforts are stymied.

Ah. Well... I'm bringing in a young colleague of mine... he should have
subscribed by now... done a bit of work with him, and he's helping me with
my base. So.... welcome, Felix. Er... when you read this... a short self
introduction to the group is traditional. Also, I'm thinking of inviting
Robin J. Carey. He and I have been coresponding by email for about six
months now.

   __    _   __  _   _   ,  ,  , ,  
  /_  / / ) /_  /_) / ) /| /| / /\            First Light of a Nova Dawn
 /   / / \ /_  /_) / \ /-|/ |/ /_/            Final Night of a World Gone
Nathan F. Yospe - University of Hawaii Dept of Physics - yospe at hawaii.edu