[MUD-Dev] common server design

[Caliban Tiresias Darklock]

On Tue, 1 Jul 1997 20:05:08 PST8PDT, clawrenc at cup.hp.com wrote:

>One approach is to make command parsing a question of simple and
>uniform expression evaluation.  Make the rules simple and easy to
>learn, and the rest should be almost automatic.  

Tiny has done this for quite some time, observing a simple syntax of 

	command/switch target=arguments

and further dividing the commands into commands which are actual
gameplay commands; uppercase commands, which deal with the connection to
the game; commands beginning with @, which are building and
configuration commands; and commands beginning with +, which are 'added'
commands specific to the individual game. There's a general contempt
I've seen in the MUD community for the prevalence of @-signs and the
case sensitivity on only *some* commands in Tiny, but there *is* a
method to the madness. 

>>>This isn't super user friendly, but after a bit of practice isn't bad -
>
>>It's the user friendliness that I think we need to QUIT IGNORING.
>>We've done it far too long. 
>
>User friendly for A != user friendly for B.

Gee, you're right. So since we cannot make everyone in the world happy
with the design of the command structure, let's just make them all
miserable. Then everyone will be equal, and equality is a Good Thing. 

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