[MUD-Dev] Re: Finer points of Telnet programming ...

[Greg Munt]

All of the replies to this post that I have read, so far, have concentrated
on the assumption that "Telnet Programming" is synonymous (or at least,
means) "Socket Programming". In my experience, socket programming is the
easy part of managing a connection from a telnet client.

Maintaining a connection, and dealing with its I/O is quite simple, really -
and is supported by many FAQs, websites, and paper-based
tutorials/documentation. But, what I have never seen is good documentation
on the telnet protocol itself - which is what I initially thought the post
was about.

In fact, the only real documentation on telnet itself is the RFCs, and the
Stephens books - of course. Only look at the RFCs if you are desperate! :-)

The telnet protocol deals with things like asking what terminal type the
person is using, stopping what the user types from being displayed (for
passwords), telling the client to work in char or line mode (and getting the
server to buffer client input, for those that dont support line mode), and
things like that.

AFAIK the telnet RFCs are on many ftp servers. They could/should probably be
retrieved from the Internic site too.

Re: your comment about wanting to build a DIKUesque mud from scratch - in my
experience, it won't make you happy. I tried making something similar to
what I was used to, and ended up scrapping it and starting again, with fresh
and new concepts. The first effort was simply something I learned from,
nothing more. Others here have similar experiences - I know Nick Elmqvist
has.

The main reason for this is that you start out knowing only the mud type
that you usually play (DIKU in your case, TinyMUD/talkers in mine). It's
only after you start developing on your own, and grow away from that, that
you truly work out what the hell you want. Do you really want a 'better
DIKU'? If so, why are you writing from scratch?

-----Original Message-----
From: Jynx (Wyrm / Tygr / Myth) Ryn <jynx_ryn at mindless.com>
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Date: Sunday, August 23, 1998 8:34 AM
Subject: [MUD-Dev] Finer points of Telnet programming ...


>I have been programming on a circleMUD based MUD for about a
>year now, and, well, I have ( and I admit this task is just
>a slight bit nutty, but I feel I am in good company for it.
>) recently taken intrest in programming a MUD from scratch,
>and have been attempting to learn such things as database
>handling, script parsing, handling time, multiple users, and
>other such esoteric techniques. On my quest to build another
>platform I have run into a building block. How does TELNET
>programming WORK? For the life of me I can't figure it out.
>
>I have the design of what I want in a mud ( vaguely
>Diku-esque ), and have most of the rest of the stuff down.
>If anybody can help me with TELNET ( C++ perferably, C
>alternately ) I'd appreciate it greatly.
>
>- Jynx Ryn
>- The Complex Man with A Simple Signiture
>----------
>
>--
>MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.