[MUD-Dev] RP=MUSH/PG=MUD

[clawrenc at cup.hp.com]

In <Pine.GSO.3.95q.970621211819.4326B-100000 at uhunix2>, on 06/22/97 
   at 11:07 AM, Nathan Yospe <yospe at hawaii.edu> said:

>On Sat, 21 Jun 1997, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:

>:On Fri, 20 Jun 1997 19:13:08 PST8PDT, "Jon A. Lambert"
>:<jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

>:Direct editing of a text file loaded directly by the MUD is a bad idea.
>:People make too many mistakes. The actual MUD configuration file should
>:be machine written if possible, to avoid problems. I do see some great
>:advantages to having the configuration human-readable and human-editable
>:if necessary, but I think it's a problem to require the builder to edit
>:this file directly every time.

>Agreed. Make it editable, readable, and sensical... but DON'T make it
>normal to do it that way.

Given a client which automagically D/L's the file in the background
and allows structured editing of the file locally, prior to automatic
uploading of the finished version (cf Emacs and Ange-FTP), I see
little difference.

>:	For each checkbox,
>:		Is the exit checked?
>:			Yes: Is there an exit there?
>:				Yes: Leave it alone.
>:				No: Make an exit.
>:			No: Is there an exit there?
>:				Yes: Destroy the exit.
>:				No: Continue.

>:However, this could be just as easily done with a command like

>:	setexits <<n|s|e|w|u|d|ne|nw|se|sw>[=name]>[...]

Counter: I've changed my exits model enough that anything of this
nature would have been difficult to stick to, and would be difficult
to map to now.  Currently I support two disperate exit models:  exits
as objects in the current room, and exits as verbs bound to the
current room (variation: occassionally exits as verbs bound to the
player character object).  The next problem of course is that I
stylisitically encourage contextual exits ("door", "bar", "street"
etc), as vs the compass directions (and pleasantly tend to place the
compass directions as leading to things you don't want to go towards).

This is not to say its impossible, just that the model needs extensive
adapting.

--
J C Lawrence                           Internet: claw at null.net
(Contractor)                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
---------------(*)               Internet: clawrenc at cup.hp.com
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