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

[Ben Greear]

On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Greg Munt wrote:

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Greear <greear at cyberhighway.net>
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
> Date: Sunday, August 23, 1998 10:31 PM
> Subject: [MUD-Dev] Re: Finer points of Telnet programming ...
> 
> >It doesn't have to be any more complex than reading bytes
> >from a socket, and writing others back to the socket.  It
> >has little to do with telnet itself.  I would suggest downloading
> >some mud code, circle, diku,  or whatever and start looking
> >at the select, bind, socket, gethostbyname, and related system
> >calls.
> 
> 
> I heartily disagree that maintaining connections with telnet clients 'has
> little to do with telnet itself'. Just because most (an assumed 'most',
> admittedly) stock muds support no more than TELOPT_ECHO, this doesn't mean
> that is what *should* be done. If you are going to write from scratch, you
> may as well do it right! (What happens when an old client, which doesnt
> support line mode, tries to connect?)

I guess what I meant was that you didn't have to do anything specific
to telnet to handle a connection, but of course you can if you want.
I would suggest getting *something* working, and then add to that.


I have always thought of telnet, as a client, a dying thing.  Those who
use it, will always use it...but very few new users adopt it.  Also,
I have a very limited concept of the actual telnet-protocol, and I'm
constantly amazed that it can handle something as primitive as my
server (nothing but plain text and newlines....).

However, I don't claim to be right, or even close on this, so by all
means, implemente the rest of the protocol if you wish!

> 
> Also, one thing that has always confused me about ScryMUD: why reimplement
> DIKU from scratch? I can think of no good reason for it.

I was young(er) and dumb(er) than I am now when I started.  When I finally
realized how to code well, I had already invested 2 years in it...so I
felt as though I should perservere and 'finish' it up.  If I had spent
three years figuring out how circle code worked, I would probably be at
least as far along as I am now in understanding the code, but I would not
have the pride and ownership that keeps me going...

For my next project, I think I'll re-write MERC :)

 > 
> On the subject of socket programming, I found the entries in the Linux
> 'info' documentation an excellent source, with many examples.
> 
> 
> -- 
> MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
> 


Ben Greear (greear at cyberhighway.net)  http://www.primenet.com/~greear 
Author of ScryMUD:  mud.primenet.com 4444
http://www.primenet.com/~greear/ScryMUD/scry.html