[MUD-Dev] Usability and interface

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

caliban at darklock.com (Caliban Tiresias Darklock) wrote:
>On Fri, 19 Sep 1997 21:43:02 PST8PDT, Adam Wiggins
><nightfall at user2.inficad.com> wrote:

>Note that whether you intend it or not, people will almost always come
>up with a way to script. The above example of mixing a poison would be
>trivial for someone who had coded it into a script; the script would
>probably be on some web page; and the *spirit* of the process would be
>lost. 
>
>On the other hand, if you count on people scripting, then people who
>don't know how to script or where to find scripts end up having a real
>pain of a time trying to play the game. It's a double edged sword.

Of course, there is no problem preventing scripting with a graphical
interface (and an obscure internal protocol). ;->

>I'd most prefer an interface which is simple to learn and easy to use,
>but can be increased in application to complex tasks easily. One way to
>achieve this is to have all the atomic, low-level commands in the MUD,
>and then have pre-written scripts built into the server which allow new
>players to play without learning everything first; for example, my
>concept of 'grip sword handle right' could be scripted into a 'wield'
>command, allowing the player to choose whether he wants to be complex or
>simple. While 'wield sword' is equivalent to 'grip sword handle right',
>they serve different purposes and are both useful.

If I should ever make a text-only interface I would go for
tab-expansion, as found in CLIs like bash or other shells, as well as
"word level" editing. In essence: context-sensitive syntax tree editing.

For instance:
you type: "swo", hit <tab>
computer: expands to "examine sword"
you type: <left> <up>
computer: pops up a menu with "wield left", "wield right", "examine" etc

etc

Ola.